Tatler, Jun 24, 2024

COVER Margielyn Didal’s skateboarding journey started in the streets of Cebu at 12. She then became the first Filipino skateboarder to compete in Street League Skateboarding and win gold in women’s street skateboarding at the Asian Games
Margielyn Didal’s skateboarding journey started in the streets of Cebu at 12. She then became the first Filipino skateboarder to compete in Street League Skateboarding and win gold in women’s street skateboarding at the Asian Games
Skateboarding debuted in the Tokyo Olympics 2020, with Margielyn Didal proudly representing the Philippines on the global stage. Where has her journey taken her since then?
If you’ve ever crossed paths with Margielyn “Margie” Didal, you’d know she faces life riding with its punches—such charm was captured in her documentary Beyond the Board: The Margielyn Didal Story. Affectionately dubbed “Miss Congeniality” by her peers, she’s a natural in front of and behind the camera, always ready with a smile and greeting for fans and strangers alike.
“Margie is incredibly lively and mischievous. She’s cheerful, always laughing,” says Gretchen Ho, executive producer of the athlete’s recent documentary. “But once you get to know her, you start to see the burdens and pressures she carries because the Philippine skateboarding community relies on her.” And Didal takes her role seriously.
But before she was a renowned Filipina athlete and Olympian, she was a simple 12-year-old Cebuana with an interest and a dream.
Didal started by watching skaters and borrowing boards from other players. “I didn’t have a phone back then, so I had to pay PhP5.00 to log in to the Internet for 30 minutes, watching tutorial videos in slow motion,” she recalls. She did this for a year as she started to skate, even though she still didn’t have her own board.
“Eventually, she was hired at the Concave Skate Park to help clean and cook for everybody,” says Daniel Bautista, the young skateboarder’s friend and coach. He added that Didal “asked a lot of questions” and “was super into it.”
The rest would be history: She won gold at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. A year later, she clinched the gold twice at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. In 2021, she represented the Philippines in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t long before her name began to gain recognition in the international skateboarding scene. “I appreciate the people around me, and they appreciate me,” Didal says, honouring her team and supporters. “They value me.”
