You’ve probably heard the tragic yet victorious story of figure skater Michael Martinez. He competed in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. With everything at stake, particularly his family’s finances, the lone Filipino figure skater rocked the Philippines and brought pride to the Filipino people.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Jasmine Cuizon is set to experience a similar journey. She aims to bring home the lechon from the World Jiu-Jitsu Championships. Set to happen this May 30, 2014 in Long Beach, California, she will compete in the Blue Belt division against top competitors from all over the world. However, how can she win if she cannot go?
“Travelling and training for the Worlds is very costly, especially for someone as far away from California as me. I am raising funds for these costs. These costs include my airfare from Cebu to San Diego (where I will be training), transportation costs from San Diego to Longbeach for the competition as well as hotel accommodations in Longbeach, food, and competition and training camp registration fees.”
Amongst the BJJ fighters worldwide, Jasmine ranked 39th out of 120 in the Adult Blue Female Light Category and 207th in the Open division from the same category.
What does it mean to be ranked worldwide? It means an athlete won multiple trophies from competing in international games. Since 2012, she’s won six golds and eight silvers. One of her golds, she got from the 2012 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship held in Hongkong.
Right now she has set her sights at grabbing the gold again for the Philippines, but this time she needs our support.
“Baseball and boxing gets a lot of support from the Filipinos. I hope everyone will see that we also have a higher chance of winning in other sports like figure skating and my sport, Jiu-jitsu. In sports, support from teammates can help an athlete a lot. And individual sports like mine, needs teammates as well,” said Jasmine Cuizon, who started doing jiu-jitsu only back in November 2010.
We definitely want our athletes to see us standing behind them, beaming with pinoy pride. Help BJJ practitioner Jasmine Cuizon get to the championship, visit her rally me page. Invite others to drop by and help her raise the amount she needs to get there and bring home the lechon.
Here she is bagging silver at the 2013 Asian Open BJJ Championship
