Figure skating

Boston's figure skating community mourns plane crash victims before championship

The World Figure Skating Championships will be hosted by the Skating Club of Boston, which lost six members in Wednesday's plane crash in Washington

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Six members of the Skating Club of Boston were among those killed in the midair collision over the Potomac River.

Wednesday's tragic midair collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines plane, which killed 67 people, has put into question the upcoming World Figure Skating Championships, which will be hosted in Boston in March.

Six members of the Skating Club of Boston were among the lives lost. Local figure skating fans and those with ties to the figure skating community are looking to make it a point to celebrate the lives of those who died while forging a stronger bond.

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"This is certainly a tragic day for the sport," said Jake Duhaime, a figure skating enthusiast and volunteer for the upcoming World Championships.

"I've been having a hard time even concentrating on the practice today, it's been very tough," said figure skater Anthony Almanzar of Team USA.

The Skating Club of Boston is the local host of the upcoming championships. Two coaches at the club are among the victims, and are the parents of figure skater Maxim Naumov, who was not on the plane and whose role in the upcoming competition is now in question.

"I don't know what his next steps are for competition, but he was planning to compete in the Four Continents Championship after next week, and then he is a first or second alternate to the World Championships, which we're hosting at the TD Garden at the end of March," said the club's CEO, Doug Zeghibe.

A collision between a commercial flight and a military helicopter left 67 people dead, including members of the New England skating community.

Almanzar, a member of the club, knows the victims. He hit the Steriti Memorial Rink in the North End Thursday to try to process his grief.

"I went through a lot of difficult times, many years back, and I deal with it through the skating," he said.

Almanzar is joining Duhaime in volunteering for the competition, which they expect will be impacted by this news in one way or another.

"The Worlds here in 2016 was one of the best events we've ever had at TD Garden," said Duhaime. "It shines a light on the sport in a positive way, where we'll hopefully be celebrating athletes and their accomplishments, including those who recently left us."

During the 2022 Beijing Olympics, 10-year-old Jinna Han, a member of the Skating Club of Boston, spoke about her excitement for the figure skating competition and her own Olympic dreams — "probably 2032?" Jinna died in the mid-air collision between American Airlines Fight 5342 and a military helicopter over Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29, 2025. She was 13.

The Steriti Memorial Rink will be the practice venue for the athletes competing in the World Figure Skating Championships -- athletes who will also be carrying a load of pressure on top of this untimely loss.

"I'm hoping that all the athletes that are going to be in the Worlds team, that they take time to just reflect, maybe take a break from training and just reflect, and really, like, find their center, and then to be able to perform and maybe do it out of appreciation and in memoriam of those that passed," added Almanzar.

The host organizations are still assessing how and if Wednesday night's tragedy will impact the event, which helps determine which athletes will get to represent their country the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

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