The number "5432" is written on the ice rink, referencing American Eagle flight 5342, at the Wichita Ice Center, where some of the plane crash victims of the American Eagle flight 5342 attended the U.S. Figure Skating High Performance National Development Camp, in Wichita, Kansas, U.S., January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Nick Oxford.=
Jan 21 (Reuters) - Nearly a year after a mid-air collision in Washington killed 67 people including 28 members of the U.S. figure skating community, athletes say the tight-knit sport is even more united, rallying around bereaved parents, coaches and teammates.
The Jan. 29, 2025 crash above the Potomac River involved an American Airlines regional jet on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter.
All aboard both aircraft were killed, among them some of the country's most promising young skaters plus parents and coaches travelling home after a national development camp held following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
Skater Amber Glenn said the tragedy reshaped the sport's sense of togetherness.
"It's hard to put into words how much that affected all of us and the families and just made us really come together as a community to appreciate each other," Glenn, who won her third consecutive U.S. title earlier this month, told Reuters.
"To lose not just the children, but the coaches, the parents, it was something that was so unexpected and hard, but we're all grieving and moving forward together."
NAUMOV HONOURS PARENTS
Among the dead were the parents of U.S. men's skater Maxim Naumov - Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, the 1994 world champions in pairs who later became coaches.
Naumov, 24, was named to his first Olympic team this month, a breakthrough that came after a season in which he repeatedly skated in public with his loss close to the surface.
Alysa Liu, a gold-medal favourite for the Winter Games coming up in February at Milano-Cortina who majors in psychology at college, said the deaths forced a hard reckoning with why athletes compete.
"I feel like it helped a lot of people realise what's truly important," Liu said.
"I was able to acknowledge that this sport means so much to so many people and that's so beautiful. But we were able to stick together. I feel like it brought a lot of us closer in a weird, like, grieving way."
Jason Brown, the 31-year-old two-time Olympian who has been a cornerstone for Team USA, said the loss is measured not only in lives, but in futures that will never unfold.
"You talk about the future of the sport and you talk about what could be," Brown said.
"I just want all those athletes and all those families to know that the skating community is behind them 100%. And we are a family that way and we want to show up for one another."
LIVING LEGACY
Ice dance stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates, gold-medal favourites heading into next month's Olympics, said the community now carries the victims into every performance.
"In their honour, we're going to continue to be grateful for the opportunity that we have, to do what we love," Chock said.
"It's not a wound that will ever fully heal," Bates added.
"But I think the opportunity to skate and lead our lives as a legacy to them is the best thing that we can do."
ONGOING INVESTIGATION
Investigators are still working towards a final accounting of what went wrong in one of the country's deadliest aviation disasters in more than two decades.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will hold a hearing on Jan. 27 to determine the probable cause of the collision.
Last month, the U.S. Justice Department said the federal government was liable for the collision, citing breaches of duty of care involving the Army and Federal Aviation Administration.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Ken Ferris)
