Their legacies will reverberate throughout our sport for years to come.
a U.S. Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River near Washington. Officials believe there are no survivors from either craft. Among those on the plane were figure skaters, their families, and coaches returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Many of these skaters were rising stars participating in the National Development Camp, a “three-day educational training program to accelerate their exposure to High Performance Programs.
As I write this, I look at the Laurence Owen Sports Illustrated cover on my wall and mourn the lives lost senselessly, then and now. But right next to that picture, I have another framed Sports Illustrated cover from 1968. Within that frame, I see another graceful young girl on the ice in Grenoble, France, wearing a long-sleeved chartreuse dress. Above her it reads, “U.S. Olympic Champion Peggy Fleming.” A mere seven years after the 1961 crash, the U.S.
Unlike the 1961 crash, which eliminated the very top level of skaters in the U.S., the 2025 crash will have an impact that we won’t see immediately. Our world and Olympic rosters will not be affected right away. But one must mourn all the future champions and future coaches lost, bright lights extinguished too soon. My heart breaks thinking of all the promise unfulfilled by these skaters just starting out on their journeys, links in a chain of knowledge going back to the origins of the sport.
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