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Michelle FlorCruz, and marketing executive Marco Torres, according
to Ambassador Sonia Cataumber Brady, the Philippine envoy to China.
“It’s a great honor for the Philippines to
be represented in the Olympic-torch relay through Jimmy, Michelle
and Marco,” Brady said in her report to the Department of Foreign
Affairs in Manila. “We also hope that during the Beijing Olympics,
we will finally win our very first Olympic gold medal.”
The Beijing City government selected FlorCruz
and his daughter in recognition of their contribution to China.
FlorCruz, formerly Time magazine’s Beijing
bureau chief, has lived in China for 37 years. He first arrived in
the Chinese capital in August 1971, as one of the 15 Filipino youths
who were invited by the China Friendship Association for a
three-week study tour.
“I covered the 1988 Seoul Olympics for Time
magazine and Sports Illustrated,” FlorCruz said. “Now I am
looking forward to covering the Beijing Games as well, this time as
CNN’s Beijing bureau chief. It would be fun not just to report on
it but to actually participate as one of the torchbearers during the
relay.”
Michelle FlorCruz, a student at the
International School in Beijing, will carry the Olympic torch on
August 3 in Tangshan City. The elder FlorCruz is scheduled to carry
the Olympic torch on August 6 in Beijing, two days before the
opening ceremonies.
“I was ‘made in China,’ born in the
Philippines, and bred in Beijing,” the daughter said. “I guess
that makes me a top-quality product, a fusion of different
cultures.”
Torres, 38, will carry the Olympic torch on July
5 in Lanzhou, Gansu province. He placed second among eight
foreigners selected by an Olympic sponsor company to carry the torch
through an Internet-voting competition called “expats for Olympic
torchbearers” conducted last year.
“I love Beijing, and I love the Olympics,”
Torres said. “Proof of this is that I declined an opportunity to
move to Shanghai if only for the Olympics. I also know now that my
destiny of being in the Olympics will be fulfilled.”
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