lone Pinoy winter games athlete gets the spotlight from US media-giant NBC

Being the lone athlete from the Philippines, Michael Christian Martinez gets the attention of the Olympics' US media-partner NBC. The article described Martinez as making history partly because it will be the first time the Philippines (a tropical country) will be sending a contender in figure skating. It's interesting to note also that the story on the NBC website mentioned how the mall ice skating rinks are a key factor for developing figure skating here.

  "olympic dreams started from an air-conditioned mall in humid manila"

Here's the story as published at NBCOlympics.Com:

SOCHI, RUSSIA – Taped to a red training coat with a not-be-seen logo underneath it, a small laminated plastic flag of the Philippines is placed squarely on the chest of figure skater Michael Christian Martinez, the country’s first Winter Olympian in two decades.

The 17-year-old Filipino who trains in Los Angeles and has a Russian coach is also the Philippines lone representative here, making his Olympic debut and becoming the first-ever figure skater to represent any Southeast Asian country.

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“It feels great that I'm here representing the Philippines at the Olympics,” Martinez told NBCOlympics.com in an interview Wednesday. “There is a lot of pressure on me because not only am I skating for my country, but for all the hard work I've put in the last four years.”

Olympic dreams start all over the world each and every day. For Martinez, it was in an air-conditioned shopping mall in humid Manila at the age of nine.

“I saw skaters doing jumps and spins on the rink at the mall,” the teenager remembered. “After the first time I tried it I loved the sport already.”

- See more at: http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/michael-christian-martinez-figure-skater-philippines-makes-olympic-history#sthash.vt4faDJv.dpuf