Tears flow at a poignant figure skating event in Washington benefiting victims of the DC plane crash
WASHINGTON (AP) — Maxim Naumov wept on his knees at the end of his performance honoring his parents, wiped away tears as he skated off the ice and held an electric candle in the air as applause rained down. Amber Glenn broke down when she finished skating, and so did 13-year-old Isabella Aparicio, who was performing in memory of her brother, Franco, and their father Luciano.
“There was not a dry eye to be found anywhere,” pairs skater Madison Chock said.
A low murmur of crying pierced a lengthy moment of silence as fans lit the arena with their cellphones, riding waves of emotion through a poignant figure skating show Sunday in the nation's capital to remember and raise money for the victims of the midair collision outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The Legacy on Ice benefit event featured a star-studded group of some of the best U.S. figure skaters of the past and present taking part to pay tribute to the 67 people who died when an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight and crashed into the Potomac River on Jan. 29. That included 28 members of the figure skating community, some of whom lived and trained in the Washington area.
“Everyone grieves in their own way, and the last month has been really challenging for a lot of us to just grapple with the magnitude of this loss,” said Evan Bates, who with Chock won Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022. “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.”
American icons of the sport Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano emceed the show, which included performances by the likes of Glenn, Johnny Weir and reigning men's world champion Ilia Malinin, along with poignant tributes to the victims.
“We are not powerless,” Boitano said in opening the show. “As skaters, we learned to be resilient and to always find a path forward that is positive.”
Ted Leonsis, head of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which staged the event along with U.S. Figure Skating, DC Fire & EMS Foundation and the Greater Washington Community Foundation, hopes doing this at Capital One Arena helps families in the healing process the way concerts and sports at Madison Square Garden did in New York in 2001 after 9/11.
“Sports can play this convening and healing role,” Leonsis said. “Our goal is to allow the community to heal, kind of a collective hug for these communities, but then we want to raise a lot of money."
The dasher boards had 67 stars, one for each of the victims, and skaters put flowers on a rinkside table of candles before beginning their routines.
“We’re all here to support one another, whether it was our friends that were on that plane, family members, coaches, teammates, loved ones,” said 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist Jason Brown, who skated to “The Impossible Dream” by Josh Groban. “We all travel for this sport. We get to do what we love. And travel is such a huge part of what we do, so it all hit us really hard because this is just such an integral part of what we do, as well as those are people that we’re closest to.”
Glenn kicked things off by performing to Andra Day’s “Rise Up” and broke down in tears at center ice when she finished. Weir, whose family moved to Newark, Delaware, when he was 12 for him to pursue his skating career, dedicated his performance to the members of the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club who were on American Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, following a national development camp there coinciding with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
“It was a very traumatic experience for me and really just devastating for me to hear when all that happened, and I really wanted to have something that everyone could remember as a family, as a whole community that we remember them,” Malinin said. “All of our daily lives, every time we step on the ice, we’ll always think of them. Every time we’re competing, they’ll always be in our hearts.”
Peggy Fleming, 1968 Olympic champion, said she hopes the event “will heal and give strength to our skaters in the future.” Alysa Liu wants to try to honor the memory of those lost so she “can keep going.”
“It’s still a struggle and was a struggle,” said Liu, who performed to “Hero” by Mariah Carey. “Coming together and seeing everyone again has definitely been the most reassuring feeling. And it’s just because everyone knows exactly how everyone feels."
Forty-one years after winning gold at the Olympics, Scott Hamilton skated onto the ice and led a prayer. “Imagine” blared from arena speakers during one ensemble performance, Malinin dazzled the crowd with his jump-filled routine and Lady Gaga's “Hold My Hand” was the soundtrack of the grand finale of the emotional two-plus-hour show.
“It was just an amazing show,” U.S. Figure Skating interim CEO Sam Auxier said. "You could see even with Ilia the passion and the feelings about what happened coming through in their skating.”
Among the sellout crowd of over 15,000 were hundreds of first responders and their family members. Some came from as far away as Baltimore to be part of the rescue and recovery efforts.
“This was an incredibly challenging scene for those first responders,” DC Fire and EMS Foundation executive director Amy Mauro said. “The things that they witnessed are very difficult and will stay with them for a long time. This is part of their grieving and healing process, as well.”
In addition to being a gathering place for figure skaters, first responders and all the families affected by the crash, the intent was to raise money for all of them.
“We’ve heard from the families about things like college tuition for young children who are in elementary school today but also things like therapy and health care that they need,” Monumental president of external affairs and chief administrative officer Monica Dixon said. “Every family will choose how to use those funds in the best way that they choose.”
The event aired live on Monumental Sports Network and streamed on Peacock. NBC will show an encore performance March 30.
"That’s what we’re hoping: We raise a lot of donations that way," Leonsis said. “People care. The lesson in this is that, to me, if you personalize something like this, you can come together and do the right things in the right way."
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