He is a three-time Thailand national champion and now Micah Lynette has his first medal on the international stage.
The 18-year-old Connaught Skating Club member returned earlier this month from the 30th edition of the South East Asian Games in the Philippines where he captured bronze.
The biennial (SEA) Games featured 56 sports and nearly 9,000 athletes. Figure skating, speed skating and ice hockey were the first-ever winter sports added in 2017. Ironically that’s when Lynette represented Thailand for the very first time and nearly made the podium, settling for fourth place.
The Bellingham resident, who recently graduated from Sehome High School, initially looked at the highly competitive US national team route before taking advantage of his mom being a native of Thailand.
“That (first SEA Games) was a real roller coaster experience,” recalled Lynette during a training session at the Richmond Olympic Oval this week. After the short (program) I was third and super excited.
“I thought it would be really easy to (at least) get third but I had a bad long program and fell down to fourth. That was really disappointing after it had looked so good for me. Going into these Games that was always in my mind.”
This time, Lynette went the opposite route — sitting fourth after the short and putting together a solid free skate that produced 113.29 points and vaulted him to the podium. The figure skating competition took place at a rink inside the SM Mall of Asia — a large shopping centre in Manila.
He is now preparing for the 2020 Four Continents Championships in early February in Korea. A good showing could qualify Lynette for his first ISU World Championships.
It would be another step towards his ultimate goal — competing at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. He would become the first skater from Thailand to do so.
“Two qualify for Worlds would first require a high technical score and right now I’m about two points away,” continued Lynette. “(To get to the Olympics) I really have to stay discipline and keep in mind why I am doing this and stay motivated.
“At a certain point it doesn’t become just so much about me and my dream of going to the Olympics and everything. It almost kind of helps to have other people (within the Thailand Skating Association) wanting this too so there is not just pressure for me to do it all for myself. I can make my country proud and do something good for skating in Thailand. It definitely helps me stay motivated.
“I feel like I have grown a lot over the past couple of years. I have made a lot of great friends in skating. Gone on to do a lot of great things and have seen some amazing places.”
