Out in the cold

All fired up in the sub-zero conditions, Marco Imbang Umgeher surveys the treacherous hill of snow, puts on his goggles and braces for the downhill ski run.

At the blast of the horn, the Filipino-Austrian racer expertly drops on the slippery slope and then zips between the poles along the 450-meter course with breathtaking precision. As soon as he skids to a stop at the foot of the hill, he looks up as if to thank the heavens for the adrenaline rush.

The slalom gold medalist in the recent Austrian Under-16 national championships, Marco did not learn all his skills in alpine skiing overnight. “It’s the result of all the years of hard work and sacrifices that I put in,” he says.

From where he stands, the 15-year-old knows that he’s ready for top-level ski racing, and to be one of the best in the alpine sport that’s totally alien to sun-bronzed Filipinos. From 2009, when Marco was barely eight, he has been competing with relative success in such events as slalom, giant slalom and Super-G. Last year alone he topped the Lower Austrian Championship Combination and the Lower Austrian Championship Slalom.

Marco first caught the attention of the Austrian Skiing Association six years ago when he ruled the slalom in the Schilowsky Kidscup Ost held in Rohr im Gebirge, Wiener Neustadt-Land. From then on, the teenager who started in the sport at age five has slowly filled a room with trophies and medals, recording 10 victories and at least 30 other podium finishes in elite-level competitions.

But in a country where topflight skiers are a dime a dozen, the son of an Austrian businessman and his Filipino wife from Sebaste, Antique province, knows that securing a spot on the Austrian team will be like climbing a mountain of shifting snow.

“I’ve always wanted to race in the World Cup and the Olympics under the Philippine flag,” says Umgeher, who divides his time between training and attending middle school in Alland, Austria. “That’s been my dream since I was little. It is with great pride to represent the country of my mother.”

But it’s taking too long for this teenager’s wish to materialize.

His mom Gemma has, for the past year, been working on the dual citizenship of her son with little progress. Marco needs a Philippine passport so that the Philippine Olympic Committee can send him to the Asian Winter Games and the Winter Olympics. A PH passport will also enable him to apply for financial support from the government’s Philippine Sports Commission and from local corporate sponsors.

“We’ve been coordinating with the Philippine consular office in Austria to fast-track Marco’s passport application,” says Gemma, whose husband Hannes spends for Marco’s gym training, equipment, travel expenses and coach’s fees through his small car-repair and repainting business.

Jessica, the skier’s elder sister, does the public relations work to raise funds for Marco’s training and competition stints while keeping her brother abreast with the latest technology and developments in the alpine sport.

“Our family is willing to sacrifice as long as our son becomes a part of the Philippine team,” says Gemma, a full-time housewife who migrated to Austria in the late 1990s and earned her citizenship a year before Marco was born. “I’m even amenable to giving up my (Austrian) citizenship if [the Department of Foreign Affairs] requires it.”

Sulpicio M. Confiado, the consul general of the DFA consular affairs office in Vienna, recently endorsed Marco’s application for dual citizenship after the Austrian government allowed Marco to compete for the Philippines without losing his Austrian citizenship.

But Marco’s passport application is taking too long to process, making it harder for the family to meet the demands of giving the sporting career of the young skier a definitive boost.

According to Gemma, Hannes spends about 100,000 euros (about P5.4 million) a year for Marco’s expenses, equipment and the fees of his three coaches. “Without help from other sources, our son’s expenses have strained the family’s finances,” she explains. “We’re just an average middle-class family that needs to work everyday to put food on the table.”

Gemma and Hannes have been asking friends for donations to keep Marco’s dream alive. They know full well that their biggest challenge now is how to make their son stay focused on the sport even as their resources dry up.

“We are doing everything to make Marco’s wish come true,” she says.