The competition at the Sixth Asian Winter Games in chilly Changchun was red hot, but it was not only the performances of the champions that warmed spectators' hearts.

James Michael Hillier, a men's skier from Chinese Taipei, was just one of a number of athletes whose exploits helped them stand out from the crowd.

Born in Canada but representing Chinese Taipei, Hillier cut an unusual figure in the freestyle skiing aerials last Thursday. He jumped from the lowest kicker and was the only competitor to use poles, but was pleased with his sixth place finish out of seven.

"I've had a lot of fun here. I'm happy with how I jumped," said Hillier, who specializes in half pipe and slalom.

"I've had no training for the aerials and I just came here to compete. The aerials event is kind of similar but not what I do."

In the competition, four athletes from the Chinese mainland led by Olympic champion Han Xiaopeng swept the top four places.

"The Chinese athletes are really very good. They've been cleaning up the podium," said Hillier, whose training comes while he attends college in Canada.

"I'm a good skier as well. I'm a kind of general skier.

"I ski for fun and I have to go to school. I'm a good student. So it's hard for me to ski because I want to get good grades.

"I don't get to ski as often as I like to. Before I went to university, I used to ski 150 days a year, but now I have 30-40 days a year."

But this lack of skiing time is not denting his ambitions.

"I've done half pipe in slope style competitions. I made the top 10 at the world skiing invitational for half pipe slope style, and I also competed at the US Open," he said.

"I'm going to the World Skiing Invitational this year in April. I want to do some FIS (Federation International de Ski) half pipe events but I don't like to miss too much school so it's kind of hard."

Hillier was not the only amateur athlete at the Winter Asiad, which wrapped up on Sunday. Two Mongolians stole the show, and a medal, in the freestyle aerials, despite performing only the simplest of jumps.

Ochirbat Otgonbayar jumped from the lowest kicker and did a single flip, while his female teammate Maral Unenbat jumped beside the kickers and landed without any movement in the air.

"It is the first time I've competed in aerials and I feel very happy about it," said Unenbat, who has been skiing for just three months.

But according to competition regulations that one team cannot sweep all the medals in one event, Unenbat shared bronze with China's third placer Zhang Xin. With that bronze, Mongolia surged to fifth in the medal table, behind China, Japan, South Korea and Kazakhstan.

The same passion was shared by three young Philippine figure skaters.

They may have skated rather slowly and struggled to land simple jumps, but representing their tropical country at a winter sport was an honor.

"I'm enjoying skating here since it's the first time the Philippines has sent figure skaters to the Asian Winter Games," said Anne Clarisse Roman, 16, who had just three months to prepare for the event and finished 15th out of 16.

The broader spread of athletes at the Games excited Asian sports officials.

"The success of the Games has given the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) the confidence to promote winter sports well in Asia," said Samih Moudallal, vice-president of OCA.

"OCA is full of confidence and expectation for the development of winter sports in Asia."

(China Daily February 6, 2007)