The future looks bright for Ludwig Hans Carizo, one of the country’s promising figure skaters.
After a podium finish at the Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy early this month, he was chosen to represent the country in the 2025 Olympic Council of Asia – International Skating Union – Children of Asia International Committee Asian Figure Skating Youth Camp held in Harbin, China from August 10 to 18.
“I’m very happy and grateful because it’s a very rare opportunity to represent the Philippines in the camp,” the 13-year-old Carizo said in an interview on Wednesday, August 20.
Dawn Jasmine Gothong joined Carizo in the camp. They were accompanied by Philippine Skating Union (PSU) technical committee chairperson, coach Franklin Masayon.
“The proudest moment in the camp was when the Olympic Council of Asia called me a Filipino prodigy in skating, which I never expected,” shared Carizo, who began skating in 2019 but only became serious in 2022.
He looks up to compatriot Michael Martinez, who competed at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia (2014) and Pyeongchang, South Korea (2018); Japanese Hanyu Yuzuru, a gold medalist at Sochi; and Americans Ilia Malinin, a two-time world champion, and Jason Brown, a nine-time Grand Prix medalist.
Carizo got 37.61 points, placing second behind Chinese Taipei’s Juan Wei Te (48.22) in the boys’ intermediate novice category in the Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City from August 1 to 5.
Australian Dong Jason Jiesen had 36.97 points to settle for the bronze medal in the tournament organized by PSU, headed by Nikki Cheng.
“I feel proud because, despite the limited time I had left to practice, I was able to get the silver medal,” said Cerizo, a Grade 8 student at the California Academy in Antipolo City.
The Philippines also secured a bronze medal courtesy of Isabella Gamez and Aleksandr Korovin, who scored 143.49 points in the senior pairs.
China’s Jianxuan Zhang and Yihang Huang garnered 190.23 points to capture the gold medal, while North Korea’s Tae Ok Ryom and Ku Chol Han pocketed the silver medal with 151.14 points.
South Korea’s Hyungyeom Kim (215.14) ruled the senior men’s division, followed by Chinese Taipei’s Yu-Hsiang Li (194.34) and North Korea’s Kwang Bom Han (191.99).
China swept the women’s division with Ruiyang Zhang (168.41) taking the gold medal, while Yi Zhu (160.63) and Wandi Xu (142.86) got the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
The other gold medalists were Hong Kong’s Zihao Harvey Zhou (boys’ advanced novice), China’s Yuxuan Liu (girls’ advanced novice), Malaysia’s Esther Yi Xuan Chong (girls’ intermediate novice), and Chinese Taipei’s Wei-Ran Lin (boys’ basic novice) and Lilia Ya Ti Lin (girls’ basic novice). (PNA)