Figure skating community "devastated" after D.C. plane crash
More than a dozen members of the figure skating community are presumed dead after an American Airlines flight and Army helicopter crashed Wednesday night in D.C.
"We have lost family," said Doug Zeghibe, the CEO of the Skating Club of Boston.
Six victims were from Boston's skating club, including two coaches — 1994 World Pair Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Zeghibe said "to the best of their knowledge" 14 skaters were on board the flight.
The victims included athletes, coaches and family members returning from a camp in Wichita, Kansas. Some of them were as young as 11. Many skaters practiced together six or seven days a week, Zeghibe said.
"We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims' families closely in our hearts," U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.
Olympians Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski opened part of Thursday's European Figure Skating Championships with a moment of silence. Both emotionally shared what a tremendous loss this is for the tight-knit community.
"I know our skating community will never be the same," Lipinski said.
Flashback: This moment is reminiscent of a tragedy in 1961 when a plane headed to a figure skating championship in Prague crashed, killing 18 members of the U.S. figure skating team.
"You don't have to know everybody to feel that connection," Olympian Nancy Kerrigan told reporters at the Skating Club of Boston on Thursday. "We've been through the same thing — that training, that rigorous schedule of falling over and over and somehow picking yourself back up, which is the main lesson learned in skating: you get back up, keep on trying. And even when it's hard, you get back up."
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