by sportswriters Yue Wenwan and Li Jia

HARBIN, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- As the scores flashed on the screen, Thailand's figure skater Teekhree Silpa-archa remained seated in the rink side "kiss-and-cry" area, holding three photos tightly at the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games (AWG).

Her short program earned just 25.15 points - not a strong performance by competitive standards. But she was not only competing for the medals but also dancing on ice for something far greater.

The 22-year-old looked at the photos once more before carefully packing them away. They were not just pictures. In them were Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, former world champion figure skaters at the Skating Club of Boston. Jinna Han, 13, and Spencer Lane, 16, along with their mothers.

All of them were meant to be watching her skate via live broadcast, but they never made it. A catastrophic plane crash in the United States had taken their lives on January 29 - just two weeks before Silpa-archa stepped on AWG's ice rink.

"It's like... basically, they knew before they left. They knew I was coming here," Silpa-archa said in a trembling voice. "And unfortunately... after that event, we still can't imagine that it happened. But all I can do right now is make them proud by still coming and competing."

"I'm going to skate my heart out. If my jumps, if anything else is a mistake, it's okay. Because I know that they would want me to, and I know I would make them proud by doing that."

Silpa-archa first stepped onto the ice at the age of four in Thailand. As she moved to Boston, the United States for university, she immersed herself in one of the most renowned skating clubs, the Skating Club of Boston, where she practiced under top figure skating coaches Olga Ganicheva and Aleksey Letow, and alongside Jinna, who was like a little sister to her.

Meanwhile, Spencer was trained with Shishkova and Naumov, who, though not her direct coaches, had become like "second parents" to Silpa-archa.

"They were my teammates," she said, "Evgenia and Vadim were not my coaches, but they were like my second parents because they coached on the same session, so I would see them every day."

She had trained with them together for over three years. They had laughed together, worked together, and now, suddenly, they were all gone. The pain was still raw. "Even Spencer, like... we were just talking last week," the Thai skater choked in voice.

A commercial airplane collided with a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington D.C. on Jan. 29, claiming 67 lives. Among them, 28 were figure skaters, coaches and their family members, who planned to return home from a figure skating training camp in Wichita, Kansas.

Those skaters had been deemed the future of figure skating in the United States, and some were on the reserves for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

"Everybody still cannot think about it. To this day, I cannot watch that video. I will not watch that video ever. I will always remember them in my heart because they meant so much to me," Silpa-archa said. "I still don't understand it... Because I just talked to them a few days ago. They told me good luck for this."

That good luck message stayed with her. She carried it onto the ice along with the weight of grief, love, and a determination to honor those she had lost.

"I know that they were figure skaters representing America, but I wanted to bring them to an international stage. So everybody can know like - hey, I'm doing this for them. They're here with me. I have their power with me, and they're watching me."

And so, for Silpa-archa, this was not just another performance. It was a tribute - a final skate for the people who could no longer glide across the ice themselves. Enditem

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