JULIAN MACARAEG is the last man skating for a possible berth to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Actually young man.
Only 18, Macaraeg aims to be the first Filipino speed skater to compete in the Winter Olympics. He is hoping that his youth bounded by 10 years of experience on the rink could salvage a lone Philippine entry to the Games Beijing is hosting from February 4 to 20.
“I am really working hard to try to get that goal because it’s a dream of mine to participate in the Olympics,” Macaraeg told BusinessMirror on Tuesday. “I have to focus on my goal and try to overcome the upcoming barriers.”
There are no barriers in the middle of the rink, only opponents who are far more experienced and jaded as Macaraeg, whose mother Irene and father Jesus trace their roots to Balagtas, Bulacan, and Villasis, Pangasinan, respectively.
The road to Beijing for Macaraeg will be through the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup scheduled in Beijing, Nagoya, Debrecen (Hungary) and Dordrecht (The Netherlands) starting October 21 and ending on Christmas Day this year.
To qualify for the Olympics, he must land in the top 32 overall in the event that consists of distances in the 500 meters, 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters.
“Hopefully, I am prepared during that time and just hoping for the best,” said the Queens (New York)-based Macaraeg. “They [ISU] are going to round up your performance and they will choose your best ranking to qualify.”
Macaraeg competed at the Philippines 2019 Southeast Asian Games but missed the bronze after he was disqualified for accidentally bumping into an opponent during the race. He saw action in the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne in January and finished ninth overall among 30 skaters in the 500 meters.
He has been rigidly polishing his blades since July on the same facility that the US national training team uses in Salt Lake City.
“I am extremely lucky to train with them [US team]. It’s very helpful to skate with them around my level to get even stronger,” said Macaraeg, who has Valentyn Danilovskye and Serhiy Lifyrenko as his coaches since 2017.
“What motivates me in this sport is to participate in the Olympics because for more than 10 years, I have been working extremely hard for this goal,” said the only child of the Macaraegs who migrated to the US 30 years ago. “The Olympic qualifying will be a gift to my parents who are working extremely hard to finance me.”
Macaraeg started as a hockey player but shifted to short track speed skating—thanks to the now retired Winter Olympics short track gold medalists Apollo Ohno of the US.
“I saw him during the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 and after seeing him, I want to take up the sport,” said Macaraeg, a recent graduate at McClancy Memorial High School in East Elmhurst in Queens. “He was one of the best short track speed skaters to have ever competed.”
Also on Macaraeg’s list are brothers Shaoang Liu and Shaolin Liu, both of Chinese origin but now racing for Hungary.
Two Filipinos—Sofia Frank and Edrian Paul Celestino—missed the cut for Beijing after finishing 24th and 18th place, respectively, in the Nebelhorn Trophy 2021, an Olympic qualifier, in Oberstdorf, Germany.
Only a handful Filipinos competed at the Winter Olympics and none of them was a speed skater. They were cousins Juan Cipriano and Ben Nanasca in Sapporo 1972, luge athlete Raymond Ocampo in Calgary 1988, alpine skier Michael Teruel in Albertville 1992 and figure skater Michael Martinez in Sochi 2014 and again Martinez and alpine skier Asa Miller in Pyeongchang 2018.