Based on pictures and on brief videos taken of him and his wards, Sochi Olympic Winter Games veteran Michael Christian Martinez seems to be enjoying himself in his new role as a coach of young and promising figure skaters under the auspices of the Philippine Skating Union.

After staying in the US for a couple of years, Martinez was back in the country last week on the invitation of PSU president Nikki Cheng, who offered the athlete the job after the exodus of PSU-accredited coaches to other jobs over the past two years due to the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are very short-handed, especially with high level coaches, so Michael’s arrival to help us is very timely,” Cheng said, adding that Fernandez began his new coaching stint at the SM Megamall skating rink among the skaters in the PSU’s developmental pool.

Martinez even posted a 15-second video posted of himself training one of the skaters under his care on Facebook.

“Super happy and excited to share my knowledge to the young generation here in the Philippines . ⛸⛸ ❄️They are the future of figure skating!” Martinez captioned the video.

The young skater in the video is Erphy McKanzie, 8, who has been with the PSU national developmental pool, according to Cheng.

The PSU head revealed that there was initial reluctance from Martinez when she broached the idea of coaching the aspiring local skaters.

“Although he wants to get back to competing, I asked Michael if he wanted try his hand at coach. He had second thoughts but had changed his mind in our last conversation. Parang nag-light up siya (He lit up),” Cheng of her succeeding chat with the athlete.

At his prime when he made his Winter Olympic debut in Sochi, Russia in 2014, Martinez, 25, was still far from being back in competitive shape, the PSU chief learned from her recent exchanges with the figure skater.

Cheng said that while the Pinoy skater had no formal training as a coach, “his experience and knowledge at performing at a high level of should help serve him well in teaching others the fine art of figure skating.

“There might be some adjustment from being an athlete to coach, so we will be looking at how he adapts and interacts with his trainees.”

The skating head added that this was also a means of for Martinez of giving back after the millions of pesos that the SM group of companies, led by SM honcho Hans Sy, and the government through the Philippine Sports Commission, had invested in his athletic career.

“I really hope Michael will be able develop young skating talent. We know it will be a long process but this is can be the next chapter for him in giving to the sport,” she explained.

Born in Paranaque, Martinez had cut his teeth as a prodigy of the SM Southmall ice skating rink in Las Pinas in 2005 where his skill and talent was noticed by coaches of the PSU, which was then known as the Ice Skating Institute of the Philippines.

According to the figure skater himself, he took to the sport at an early age as a means of overcoming chronic asthma.

Realizing his immense potential, the tall and lanky skater was sent to the US to train with top coaches, among them English mentor John Nicks, a former world pair skating champion with sister Jennifer, and Russian Olympic men’s figure skating champion Ilia Kulik.

At the age of 16, Martinez tasted his first international victory in the 2012 Crystal Skate in Romania, following it up with a fifth-place finish in the world junior championships held in Milan, Italy in March 2013 with a score of 191.64 points.

A broken ankle during the 2013 season kept the Pinoy skater off the ice around two months.

But he was able to recover in time to book a ticket to the Sochi Winter Games in securing seventh place in the Nebelhorn Trophy, the last Olympic qualifying event, in September of that year in Oberstdorf, Germany in scoring 189.46 points.

By being among the top 10 finishers in the competition, Martinez earned the distinction of being the first Southeast Asian to qualify in the men’s individual figure skating for the 22nd Winter Games held in the famed Russian resort city of Sochi.

He was likewise the lone Philippine representative in the meet and was likewise given the task of being the standard-bearer during the colorful opening rites at the 40,000-seat Fisht Olympic Stadium.

In his Winter Games debut, Martinez scored 64.81 point in the short program to advance to the free skate phase where 119.44 points to place 19th overall out of 24 entries with a grand tally of 184.25 points.

His performance and return from the Sochi Winter Games became a cause for nationwide celebration, and, with his handsome and clean-cut looks, emerged as the figure skating’s poster boy in the country.

Among his other notable achievements in 2014 were sixth place in the Lombardia Trophy, a leg in the tough International Skating Union Challenger Series, and 10th overall in Skate America.

Martinez likewise made his debut in the world championships held in Shanghai, China, placing 21st among 24 athletes with a score of 192.38 points.

In another milestone for the figure skater, the high point of the Martinez campaign in 2015 was ruling the men’s individual event of the Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy competition in Bangkok, Thailand.

With figure skating making its Southeast Asian Games debut, the Filipino had to settle for silver behind hometown favorite Julian Yee in the 2017 edition held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A return trip to the Winter Games in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea fell short after he placed 8th in the 2017 CS Nebelhorn trophy and was relegated to alternate status because the qualifiers were reduced to the top 8 in the meet.

Martinez also missed the opportunity of performing in front of a hometown crowd in failing to compete in the 2019 30th Southeast Asian Games over reportedly a miscommunication with the federation.

He went into semi-retirement for the next two years as the world was swept by the pandemic, dabbling in coaching while trying to earn his keep as “media influencer” on social media before announcing his aspiration to compete in the Tokyo Olympics in early 2021.

But by then, the PSU had already named Christopher Lanuza and Canada-based Edrian Celestino as the country’s Olympic hopefuls, according to Cheng.