Nancy Kerrigan tearfully pays tribute to figure skaters in plane crash
U.S. Olympic figure skating icon Nancy Kerrigan spoke through tears as she remembered members of the skating community who are believed to be dead after the devastating crash of a military helicopter and American Airlines flight 5342.
The aircraft, carrying members of the figure skating community home from the National Development Camp in Wichita, Kansas, collided with a helicopter over Washington, D.C., Wednesday evening.
Speaking at a Jan. 30 press conference held at the Skating Club of Boston — home to six of the crash victims — Kerrigan reflected on the tragedy. She shared that while she had trained at the club's former facility, she had not personally worked with those on the flight but had interacted face-to-face with them over the years.
'Not sure how to process it,' she said tearfully as she began, 'which is why I'm here.'
Kerrigan underscored the impact of the tragedy on the close-knit skating community during the interview.
"Our community is ... it's pretty small," she explained. "It's not just here that's hurting, and I think it's not just in these specific places. Every rink that has skating has feelings towards this. It's tragic."
U.S. Figure Skating — the country's governing body for the sport — has nearly 246,000 members, including 185,581 Learn to Skate USA members, according to its website.
While appearing alongside Kerrigan, leaders of the Skating Club of Boston said its skaters Spencer Lane and Jinna Han were on the flight along with their mothers, Christine Lane and Jin Han. Coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova also died in the accident.
Toward the end of the interview, Kerrigan reflected on a shared bond of resilience amongst skaters forged through training through harsh realities and pain.
"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 like the main lesson, I think, learned in skating," she continued. "You get back up. Keep on trying. And even when it's hard, you get back up. Even when you're crying, hurt, in pain, get back up and move forward. Not easy, but that's what we all have to do now together.'
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
23 minutes ago
- New York Times
Watch: Sue Bird discusses Caitlin Clark's passing and WNBA ownership
Few names are more synonymous with basketball excellence than Sue Bird. A four-time WNBA champion, Bird spent her entire 20-year career with the Seattle Storm, where she earned a record 13 WNBA All-Star selections, made eight All-WNBA teams, won five Olympic gold medals, and still holds the league's all-time assists record with 3,234. Advertisement And on Saturday, she'll be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame at the Tennessee Theatre. Bird has remained just as impactful off the court since her retirement in 2022. She became part-owner of the Storm in April 2024 after joining the team's ownership group, Force 10 Hoops. In May, she was appointed as the first managing director of the USA women's national team. If that wasn't enough, the 44-year-old is also making waves in podcasting. She co-hosts 'A Touch More' with her wife, former soccer star Megan Rapinoe, and hosts her women's basketball-focused show, 'Bird's Eye View.' On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita and Ben Pickman interviewed Bird to discuss WNBA media, her passion for podcasting, the unique perspective she brings to team ownership, and what makes Caitlin Clark such a special passer. A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Keita: Sue, you officially retired in 2022, but you haven't really fully stepped away from the game and you've been very much involved since your retirement. One of the biggest things you've been doing since is podcasting, and you've inserted your voice in a unique way into the world of women's basketball. When you think about the media landscape right now, we know there's been a boom. … You know what it was like when there wasn't that much interest in your practices or games, and now everyone wants to get in there. So what do you see in the media landscape right now when it comes to women's basketball? Bird: Obviously, there's been a ton of growth, which is something we always wanted. It wasn't that we didn't have any coverage, but it was just that we didn't have enough, and now that's starting to enter into the picture. The way I refer to it is like an ecosystem. Think about what happened as the WNBA boomed in the last year or two. This ecosystem grew and more people were coming into it, but we didn't have a balance. We didn't have enough people who really understood the league, who knew the league, knew its history, knew why certain things would happen, why certain wouldn't, and had a true understanding of it. I think that's where I come into play, and not just myself, but other former players who are doing this and people like yourselves who are involved in women's basketball. Advertisement It's important to balance that ecosystem and to have an understanding, because with all the influx of people who were new to women's basketball, they were getting some of the narratives wrong. Some of them were just off, meaning those narratives took on a life of their own at times, and there wasn't something to counteract it, and there wasn't that balance. So the more that starts to increase, and as those of us who really know the game start to get larger platforms, it can all exist. Because sadly in our world today, you do need the hot take, you do need the wrong take, and you need to have these conversations to really get to the bottom of things. But what was missing was accuracy I would say. Keita: Exactly, and I imagine that's what you want to bring with 'Bird's Eye View.' I've been really enjoying that content, and particularly the accuracy you just mentioned where you're allowing players to tell their stories themselves, and provide that perspective and narrative themselves. Was that the impetus for why you launched your podcast? To be able to give players that lane that maybe you remember missing as a player? Or were you even hearing in the ecosystem from players saying, 'I really wish I could talk to a former player as opposed to a media member.' Is that one of the things that 'Bird's Eye View' wants to address? Bird: Yeah, partly, a lot of what I said about the ecosystem was more pertinent to 'A Touch More' because that's kind of how it got started. Then as we were doing that show, we talked about all different sports across the board, but obviously the WNBA and women's basketball was something we tapped into a lot. But I just found that I wanted to go deeper, and I wanted to talk about it more. And what I'm finding now as I'm doing it, is what you're saying, which is that I just really love having these conversations with players. I do think there's that element of being a former player where I'm able to disarm in a different way. But I also know that these players know I'm not trying to get any 'got you' moments, and I'm not trying to catch them out with anything. I'm just trying to have a real conversation. And I do think it gives them a chance to really talk about things and have somebody who can connect, relate and hopefully leave space for them to tell their side. So I've been really enjoying it and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I do have a couple of minutes on each side of the interview where I get to talk about the specific basketball things I want to talk about. Sometimes it's players, teams, themes, whatever it is. But for the most part, it's really just letting these players have that space. Pickman: Sue, when we had Candace Parker on the show, she talked about sometimes needing to take the white gloves off and the importance of that in the ecosystem. What are your thoughts on how media can do things differently, or about the idea of being fair but also critical when the situation warrants it? Advertisement Bird: Fair but critical is a great way of saying it, and that's something that not just Candace and I have talked about, but really all of us have for a long time. There wasn't a lot of critique, and in fairness to everyone who's been around for 20-plus years, it felt too risky to critique at times because it was so easy for so long to jump on that critique and then paint it across the whole league. If you said one bad thing about one thing, that was it: the whole league had no value. So it felt risky. But I do think we're now getting into this place where you can have both. But the important part is to be fair while also critical; both have to exist. And like I said, no 'we got you' moments, but real conversations. And in those real conversations come shooting slumps, come a game or a play where you look back and wish you did something different, or maybe a relationship with a teammate you wish you handled differently. Those are just real conversations. Pickman: You've mentioned some of your conversations with players, but I'm also curious about your conversations with ownership. We know you have an ownership stake in the Seattle Storm, and obviously there's an ongoing CBA negotiation. What have you learned about being on that side of the business? Have you talked to Ginny Gilder, Lisa Brummel, and the other members of the Storm ownership group about the ongoing negotiation? And what do you bring to the mix in terms of those talks? Bird: Yeah, I definitely do stay in touch with them, and what I'm bringing is what I knew I was going to bring the minute I became an owner just over a year ago. Which is I'm on the ownership side of things, but I have a player's perspective and that's unique. At times, I'm able to learn from the ownership group because I don't know that side as well. But then I'm also able to provide a little bit of understanding and nuance on what a player might be thinking in certain situations or certain moments. It's just a really good balance. And at the end of the day, I actually don't feel that much different being on this side as opposed to the player side. We all just want a great deal, and we just want this league to succeed, period, point blank. Pickman: You're the all-time leader in assists, and we have some great passers in the league right now. Courtney Vandersloot unfortunately tore her ACL this past weekend, and she's one of the all-time great passers too. But Caitlin Clark is very much on pace it seems to chase down your record one day. Bird: These records have no chance because they play way more games now. I don't want to get too caught up in the games played because it is what it is. I don't feel any way about it because records are meant to be broken. But I played 34 games for the majority of my career. So the players today are on the clock with these records, they better break those things in like five years. Pickman: Very true, and they probably will. But I wanted to ask, what makes Caitlin Clark so special as a passer in your mind? And what separates her as a passer compared to all her peers? Bird: The important thing to recognize here with Caitlin, and this conversation is we're not even bringing her name up unless she has incredible court vision, and unless she has the type of vision where she's able to anticipate and read. What I would add to that and what I think separates her, on top of all the qualities that most great passers have, is that she has strength. Sometimes she's able to make passes not because she sees it or because she's reading the defense — yes, those things exist, but that's not why she's able to make the pass — she's able to make the pass because she can actually get it there. The easiest way to see it is with her full-court passes, but they also happen in the half-court. Sometimes she'll have picked her dribble up, somebody will cut, and she still has the zip to get a backdoor pass off the bounce to her teammate on time. I would add that strength as a differentiator to some of the other great passers we've seen. You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube. (Top Photo:for Fast Company)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Simone Biles apologizes to Riley Gaines, argues for 'competitive equity and inclusivity' in women's sports
Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles apologized to former college swimmer Riley Gaines after the two engaged in a verbal back-and-forth on X on Friday. In a post Tuesday, Biles apologized for not showing "empathy and respect" in a tweet where she ripped Gaines for the former swimmer's stance on transgender athletes. In her post, Biles said she believed "competitive equity and inclusivity" are essential in sport. She said she did not want to advocate for policies that "compromise fairness in women's sports." Biles added that she took issue with Gaines singling out a child in her post. Advertisement Biles ended her post by saying: "Individual athletes—especially kids—should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system they have no control over. I believe sports organizations have a responsibility to come up with rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition. We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive, and respectful." Biles and Gaines engaged in a verbal back-and-forth on X on Friday after Gaines attacked a high school girls softball team, claiming one player on the team was transgender. Biles responded to that tweet, calling Gaines a "sore loser" and a "bully." Gaines — a former swimmer at the University of Kentucky — became a public figure in 2022, when she argued against the inclusion of transgender women participating in women's sports after she tied for fifth with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at a meet. Gaines has continued to lobby for that cause, and appeared in a video on the United States Department of Health and Human Services website in February which argued against allowing transgender women to participate in women's sports. Gaines responded to Biles' post Friday, calling it "disappointing." Over the weekend, Gaines tweeted or shared at least 15 tweets mentioning Biles. Gaines has not addressed Biles' apology post at this time.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Simone Biles apologizes to Riley Gaines for getting ‘personal' in clash over trans athletes
Simone Biles is apologizing to conservative activist Riley Gaines for getting 'personal' in their recent clash over transgender athletes, but defending her stance that 'competitive equity and inclusivity are both essential' in sports. In a Tuesday post on X, the Olympic gymnast wrote that she wanted to 'follow up' on her recent social media messages involving Gaines, who had slammed a transgender athlete's participation on a Minnesota high school softball team. Gaines referred to a player on the team, who identifies as transgender, as 'a boy.' 'You're truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race,' Biles said in a post directed at Gaines. 'You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports,' Biles told Gaines, adding in another post, 'Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.' Gaines had responded that Biles' comments were an 'attempt to be inclusive and virtuous' by deciding 'to sell out all women and girls who have dreams to achieve and to succeed.' On Tuesday, 28-year-old Biles told her nearly 2 million X followers, 'The current system doesn't adequately balance these important principles, which often leads to frustration and heated exchanges, and it didn't help for me to get personal with Riley, which I apologize for.' 'These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don't have the answers or solutions to, but I believe it starts with empathy and respect,' Biles said. 'I was not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women's sports. My objection is to be singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful,' the Olympic gold medalist said. 'Individual athletes—especially kids—should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system they have no control over,' she said. 'I believe sports organizations have a responsibility to come up with rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition,' Biles said. 'We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive, and respectful.'
