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Skating Club of Boston gathers to grieve members killed in plane crash
Among those seeking comfort in the close-knit skating community were two Olympians, Nancy Kerrigan and Dr. Tenley Albright, and a former national champion, Paul George.
NORWOOD, Mass. — At the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, the home rink of two skaters and two coaches killed in the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342 in Washington, D.C., the gleaming ice was empty Thursday afternoon — not because it had been closed to skating, but because members had chosen not to skate, said Doug Zeghibe, the club’s CEO.
“Normally, it would be packed with skaters and coaches, with world championships and junior world championships coming up, but folks have chosen to take a break,” he said. “It feels very fitting that it’s gone silent. It’s eerie, but it feels respectful.”
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Some of the club’s best known and most accomplished members and alumni gravitated to the rink Thursday, reeling from the news and seeking comfort in their close-knit skating community. Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was there, and so were Dr. Tenley Albright, the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal, and Paul George, a former national champion.
“We came here because we needed to be together,” said Albright, 89, who was the Olympic figure skating champion in 1956. “We’re family. It’s a community, and the people on that plane, they’re our family, too.
“I can’t believe that it happened,” she added, turning to gesture toward the ice behind her, “because I picture them right here.”
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“They flew across this ice and inspired all of us.”
Albright and George remember the first time a crash devastated their skating community, in February 1961, when a plane carrying the entire U.S. figure skating team to the World Championships in Prague crashed, killing the 18 team members, judges, coaches, family members and 16 international officials.
Zeghibe said Thursday that “almost half” of those lost back then were from the Skating Club of Boston, a catastrophic loss that generated “black energy” for years afterward.
“That crash happened before I was born, but even as a little 3-year-old, I knew,” he said. “It was the terrible, awful you couldn’t talk about, but you could viscerally feel it.”
“It’s a very vivid reminder of 1961,” George said of the accident Wednesday night. “My wife tapped me on the shoulder and told me, just as my father did back then.”
The two Boston-area skaters killed were Spencer Lane, 16, of Barrington, Rhode Island, and Jinna Han, 13, of Mansfield, Massachusetts. Their mothers, Christine Lane and Jin Han, were also killed. So were a married couple, Vadim Naumov, 55, and Evgenia Shishkova, 52, former Olympic skaters who coached at the skating club, which began in 1912 and counts 1,100 members. They were returning from a national development camp for young skaters.
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Jinna had grown up at the club, “from a little tyke into an amazing 13-year-old,” Zeghibe said, so poised and self-possessed, “you wouldn’t believe she was 13.”
Club members who knew Spencer described him as the unlikeliest of phenoms. He did not begin skating until he was 13, a decade later than many top skaters. But he advanced so quickly that he was seen as a possible Olympic hopeful.
“You don’t just need talent; you need grit and resilience, and to get there in three years … ” Zeghibe said, trailing off.
“It’s unheard-of,” said Elin Schran, a skater and choreographer who is Albright’s daughter.
Schran said that Spencer had skated in his first professional show in December and that he had been nervous. He performed well and was lit up afterward with his success, she said.
“He had such natural grace and beauty, his positions were so gorgeous, and he was beaming,” she recalled, fighting back tears. “He told me, ‘I get it now’ — he had started to understand the connection with the audience — and he said, ‘Please let me skate with you next year.’”
Kerrigan said she expected the local skating community to continue supporting one another in grief.
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“I’m wishing the families the courage and strength to make the next steps,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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