By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo on Monday, Feb. 7, won a spot in the finals of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The 22-year-old Carrillo, the first Mexican to compete in the sport in over three decades and the only Latino in the competition, made history during his short program debut at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Decked out in a black suit with 18,000 crystals and performing to the rhythms of “Black Magic Woman,” Carrillo scored 79.69 in his short program, his best performance of the season.

A native of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Carrillo was the eighth participant in the presentations of the short program, which is considered extremely difficult due to its short duration of two minutes and 40 seconds, in which even the slightest mistake can disqualify a contender from the finals.

A total 30 skaters were scheduled to participate in the individual short program competitions, but only 29 competed because the United States’ Vincent Zhou withdrew after testing positive for covid-19.

Of the short program competitors, the best 24 qualify for the long or free program.

Carrillo is slated to present in the long program in the men’s category on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Mexico has four athletes competing in the Beijing games.

Also competing are Sarah Schleper and Rodolfo Dickson in alpine skiing and Jonathan Soto in cross country skiing.