NORWOOD, Mass. (AP) — Two teenage figure skaters, their mothers, and two former world champions who were coaching at a historic Boston club were among the 14 members of the skating community killed when an American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter Wednesday night and crashed into the frigid waters of the Potomac River.
Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said Thursday that skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane were among those killed, along with 1994 pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov of Russia. In all, 14 of the victims were coming back from a national development camp for promising young skaters following the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas, Zeghibe said.
“We came here because we needed to be together,” 1956 Olympic champion Tenley Albright said while standing in a rink outside Boston that is named for her. “We’re family, and it’s a community and the skaters — the people who were on that plane — they’re our family, too.
“I certainly don’t have any answers. I really can’t believe that it happened, because I picture them right here,” Albright said, breaking into tears. “It’s just terrible, and it’s sad. And we just feel we need to be together. And that’s why you see so many hugs today.”
The Kremlin also confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov were aboard. Among their students was their 23-year-old son, Maxim, a former U.S. junior champion who has finished fourth at senior nationals the past three years, narrowly missing the podium on Sunday while his parents watched at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita.
Maxim Naumov flew home Monday. “He had no reason to stay at the national development camp,” Zeghibe said.
“Both of his parents were with him while he was competing. It’s well-known Mom was always too nervous to watch him skate," the club official said, pausing to contain his emotions. “But his dad was with him, and Dad was in the ‘kiss-and-cry’ sharing his great performance.”
Sixty passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines plane and three soldiers aboard a training flight on the Blackhawk helicopter are presumed dead after the collision in Washington on Wednesday night. There was no immediate cause identified, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet coming from Wichita was making a routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path.
Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said officials do not believe anyone survived.
“We are heartbroken to learn that figure skaters, along with their families, friends and coaches, are understood to be among those on board,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy.
“Figure skating is more than a sport — it’s a close-knit family — and we stand together.”
Considered one of the most prestigious clubs in the world, the Skating Club of Boston produced Olympic and world champions Dick Button and Albright, Olympic medalists Nancy Kerrigan and Paul Wylie and scores of U.S. champions, with Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov winning the pairs in Wichita just last week.
The club, which is getting ready to host this spring's world championships, sent 18 skaters to nationals in all.
The U.S. Figure Skating and Massachusetts flags were lowered to half-staff outside the century-old club's newly built rink on Thursday. Flower deliveries arrived at the reception desk, while visitors were greeted with long and tearful hugs.
“We’ve been through tragedies before — as Americans, as people — and we are strong. And I guess it’s how we respond to it," said Kerrigan, a two-time Olympic medalist and Skating Club of Boston alum. “And so my response is to be with people I care about, I love and need. I needed support, so that’s why I’m here.”
On the club’s two practice rinks, young skaters practiced their routines in silence.
“Skaters are resilient, and they want to skate,” Zeghibe said. “I think also they come to the club and will come to the club as an opportunity to come together and to grieve together.”
A table that had been filled with messages wishing all of the skaters luck in Wichita was replaced midday by one with framed pictures of Lane, Han and the coaches. In front of the photos were lit candles; behind them, six white roses stood in six simple vases.
“I’m heartbroken by the tragic loss of my fellow skaters in this devastating accident,” said reigning world champion Ilia Malinin, who won his third consecutive national title in Wichita. “The figure skating community is a family, and this loss is beyond words.”
Lane, 16, was a sectionals champion who had become popular among the skating community on social media, where he has thousands of TikTok followers. On Wednesday, he posted a video showing him doing a triple toe loop to wrap up the development camp.
“I am so happy to have qualified for national development camp,” Lane said in an Instagram post Wednesday. “It has been my goal almost ever since I became aware that it was a thing. I learned so much new information that I can apply to my everyday life, and met so many amazing people.”
He later posted a photo of him aboard the plane just before it departed from Wichita.
Lane’s father said Spencer had an infectious personality.
“In his home club in Boston, he was just loved by everyone from the adults running the club to the smallest skaters to the people that are competing for a shot at the Olympics,” Douglas Lane told WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island. “They just adored him.”
Naumov and Shishkova moved to the U.S. and became coaches, first at the International Skating Center of Connecticut and since 2017 at the Boston club that has served as a training ground for world-class skaters since 1912. They competed together in pairs events at two Olympics, in 1992 and 1994.
"We were at the Olympics together. But in '94, I was kind of busy myself and sort of separated from a lot of what was going on,” said Kerrigan, whose attack by cronies of rival Tonya Harding dominated the news at the Lillehammer Games.
“Everything you've heard about them being a little tough — but with a smile on their face,” she said. “To walk in here and not see that would be very strange for everybody that comes here, especially those that are here day in and day out. And it’s it’s going to be hard.”
Han was only 13, but already showing Olympic potential, Zeghibe said.
“We watched Jinna just grow up here, from just a tiny little tyke into this amazingly mature 13 year old,” Zeghibe said. “A great performer, a great competitor. And off the ice, a great kid — as we would say ‘raised right.’”
For the Boston club, the accident was an eerie reminder of a 1961 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. delegation en route to the world championships in Prague. The world championships were canceled that year out of respect for the American team killed in the crash.
Albright said she would have gone to Europe to cheer the team on if she hadn't been in medical school at the time. She lost her coach and 22 friends on that flight.
“Like today, 1961 was a tragic moment. The day the music stopped, very much like this,” said former USOC vice president Paul George, who was the American pairs champion the following year. “It took time, but we came back — I think stronger, better.”
The club is preparing to host the world championships at the TD Garden in Boston from March 25-30. Zeghibe said the plans are to have a “super, amazing event.”
“We’re pretty busy and we can’t take a break," he said. "We need to keep moving.”
The European championships are taking place this week in Tallinn, Estonia. They continued Thursday as scheduled and there was a moment of silence during the competition for the victims.
“Today, the world of figure skating is heartbroken," International Skating Union President Jae Youl Kim said. "We share our deepest, most sincere condolences with the families and friends of all those who lost their lives in this terrible crash. To lose so many members of our community in this way brings sadness beyond words.”
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Skretta reported from Kansas City, Missouri.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Dave Skretta And Jimmy Golen, The Associated Press
