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Mother mortgages house to finance her son’s trip to Sochi Olympics

Sports
olimp

The mother of 17-year-old Michael Christian Martinez, the only figure skater representing the Philippines at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, mortgaged her house to finance her son’s trip to the Olympics, msn.ru reports. The Filipino Olympian’s mother even tried to contact Malacanang, the residence of the Philippine president, to call for support but they did not even pick up the phone.  In order to fund her son’s trip to Sochi, the desperate mother had to mortgage the house. “I don’t even know whether the President’s Office knows that there’s a Filipino skater in the Olympics,” she said. Michael was encouraged by his mother’s step and decided to rely on his faith to carry him through Sochi. For some time now, he has been trained by 76-year-old veteran Russian coach Victor Kudryavtsev. “In May, I traveled to the Philippines and was deeply impressed to see the conditions of the skating rink where Michael was training. By the way, he learnt to perform a triple axel by watching figure skaters on TV,” said Kudryavtsev.