Figure skating icons honor D.C. plane crash victims at ‘Legacy on Ice’

WASHINGTON — When American Airlines 5342 fatally collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River a little more than one month ago, the first feelings that rippled throughout the U.S. figure skating community were shock and grief − mourning for the skaters, coaches and parents who were lost. Then, it was: What can we do to honor them?

‘As skaters,’ 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi explained, ‘we learn to express our emotions through artistry.’

And so, on Sunday, they took to the ice at Capital One Arena for ‘Legacy on Ice,’ a two-hour tribute show to honor the 67 victims in the Jan. 29 crash and raise money for the families and first responders who were impacted. Twenthy-eight of the people lost – nearly half of the passengers on the flight that collided with a military helicopter near Washington Reagan National Airport – were teen or pre-teen figure skaters, their coaches or members of their families.

‘Everyone grieves in their own way, and the last month has been really challenging for all of us to just grappled with the magnitude of this loss,’ 2022 Olympic team gold medalist Evan Bates said. ‘I think coming together today and doing something tangible, like a show, will give people hopefully a little glimmer of hope and a little light for that next step forward.’

The exhibition included appearances by some of the most legendary names in U.S. figure skating, from co-hosts Yamaguchi and 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano to 1968 gold medalist Peggy Fleming. And it featured performances on the ice by current and former Olympic and world champions, including Nathan Chen and Ilia Malinin, and retired fan favorites, such as NBC analyst Johnny Weir.

All told, more than 40 current and retired Team USA skaters participated, with medalists from eight different editions of the Winter Olympics among them.

‘My grandfather would always tell me … that when people come together and you share your wins and your victories together, they double. And when you share the losses and you share the tragedies, those sorrows get cut in half,’ two-time Olympian Jason Brown said. ‘And that’s kind of how I feel coming together.’

Sunday’s show featured individual tributes to the 11 young figure skaters who died in the Jan. 29 crash, in which a military helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight returning from Wichita, Kansas − the site of a national development camp for the country’s top skating talent. Four of the skaters’ coaches and 13 family members also died in the crash.

The show also included video tributes and a round of applause for the estimated 400 first responders and family members who were in attendance.

Perhaps the show’s most poignant moment was the performance of Maxim Naumov, who lost both of his parents, 1994 pairs champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, in the crash. Naumov skated to his parents’ favorite song − a song that, Boitano explained in his introduction, would prompt them to spontaneously slow dance together whenever it came on. After the performance, he fell to the ice and sobbed as the crowd at Capital One Arena gave him an extensive round of applause.

‘It was very emotional for me to watch him perform,’ said Malinin, the reigning world champion and gold medal favorite for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina. ‘It really put me to tears, and it put a lot of us to tears. I was really just proud of him for being able to kind of wrap his mind around this and really just get on the ice and perform with everything he’s got.’

Naumov, who finished fourth at the most recent national championships, was one of several skaters Sunday whose tributes carried a personal weight. Isabella Aparicio − who lost both her brother, 14-year-old Franco, and father, Luciano, in the crash − skated to a recording of her father playing Canon In D Major.

Ashley Cain and Gracie Gold, who worked as coaches at the development camp, joined a group in repeating a skating exercise that the young skaters performed at the camp.

‘The skating community is such a small and close-knit community in so many ways, so the tragedy was felt really, really deeply,’ Gold said. ‘And I had no doubt that so many of us would turn out for this event.’

After a practice for the show Saturday evening, Gold talked about some of her lasting memories from the last day of the development camp. After hosting a question-and-answer session at the very end of the camp, she traveled with some of those same young skaters to the airport, stood with them in security lines and chatted with some of their coaches. She specifically remembered talking with Spencer Lane’s coach about how to protect the 16-year-old from some of the pressures he would face as his career progressed.

Gold said she then said her goodbyes and boarded a plane home. American Airlines 5342 took off about 90 minutes later; Lane, 16, and his mother were among those on board.

‘It’s been really difficult for the whole community,’ Gold said. ‘Just to see something good come from such a horrible event is really, really special.’

More than 15,000 spectators purchased tickets to ‘Legacy on Ice’ to make the event a sell-out, according to a spokesperson for Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which operates Capital One Arena and allowed organizers to hold the tribute free of charge. Monumental also donated $200,000 to the event’s charitable efforts, which will be split evenly between the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund, Greater Washington Community Foundation’s “DCA Together Relief Fund” and the DC Fire & EMS Foundation.

It wasn’t immediately unclear how much money had been raised as of Sunday night, though organizers hope people will continue their giving. The show, which was televised live on NBC’s streaming service Peacock, will be rebroadcast on NBC on March 30 at 1 p.m. ET.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media@tomschad.bsky.social.