'For them': US figure skating plane crash victims remembered in China

Nearly half of the passengers who perished on board the American Eagle flight on January 29 were members of the figure skating community.

The dead included former Russian world pairs champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, along with 11 young skaters.

Shishkova and Naumov were coaches at The Skating Club of Boston, where Thai figure skater Teekhree Silpa-Archa trained alongside Spencer Lane and Jinna Han.

Spencer, 16, and Jinna, 13, also died when the jet collided with a US Army helicopter in the United States capital.

Silpa-Archa held three framed photographs at the Asian Games: Spencer with his mother, Jinna with hers, and the married coaches relaxed in each other’s arms.

“The people who were on the flight knew I was coming here,” the 22-year-old Silpa-Archa told AFP in Harbin.

“I wanted to take them on an international stage and do it for them.”

Silpa-Archa smiled but was sombre as, clutching the pictures, she looked to the screen for her results in the immediate aftermath of her display on Thursday.

Silpa-Archa, who studies and trains in Boston, said: “I remember them telling me ‘Good luck’ for my competition and they ‘can’t wait’ until I get back home to see them.”

Back in Boston, the tight-knit community is still grieving.

“Skating doesn’t feel the same,” she said.

“We have to walk by Jinna’s and Spencer’s chairs every day to go into our locker room. Everything reminds us of them.”

Spencer was a “firecracker”, she said.

“He was funny, he was motivated, he was determined.

“He was just everybody’s ray of happiness. Same with Jinna.”

Silpa-Archa considered Jinna a younger sister, working with the same coach and seeing each other every day.

Holding the photos at the Games, where 34 countries and territories across the region competed this week, she wanted people to “remember them as amazing, beautiful people who were so dedicated to this sport”.

Silpa-Archa, battling a sprained ankle and still mourning her friends, did not win a medal.

But competing was much more than about that.

“I’m going to keep pushing through,” she said.

“They always wanted me to be happy. So I’m going to do that from now on.”