AS part of priming her for another grueling qualifying grind for the 2024 Paris Olympics, skateboarder Margielyn Didal is set to undergo a complete body and mind evaluation at the high-tech Red Bull Performance Center in Salzburg, Austria.
“One of our plans is to send Margie to the Red Bull headquarters in Austria. That’s where she can have a complete assessment of her body, how can she make her body and career last longer. So she can skate more and train more,” said national street skateboarding coach Dani Bautista in an online press conference last Wednesday.
Fresh from their experience in the Tokyo Games, Bautista and Didal discussed what is next in line for the skateboarder, who wound up seventh among eight finalists in the women’s street skateboarding event last July 26 at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.
Didal recounted her experiences at the Games where the millennial sportmade its debut in the quadrennial global sports festival.
The Red Bull Performance Center in Austria is a modern facility for high-performance or elite athletes, complete with the equipment and expert personnel, comparable to the world-famous Australian Institute of Sport.
As the local endorser of the popular energy drink, Didal is entitled to and can become the first Filipino athlete to avail of Red Bull Performance Center’s services.
After a short respite, Didal can go back to training at the skatepark built by Red Bull for her in Cebu before she competes in the Street Meet in Salt Lake City, Utah at the end of August, followed by another meet in Barcelona, Spain a few weeks later.
Bautista said Didal will see action for the country again in the Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Thailand and then will defend her street skateboard title in the 22nd Hangzhou Asian Games in March and September, respectively, next year.
Bautista said Didal will try to qualify for the 2024 Paris Summer Games “since the qualifiers start next year.”
