Mourners gathered inside the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum in downtown Colorado Springs Monday night to remember members of the U.S. Figure Skating community killed in a plane crash last week.
Among the attendees at the vigil were skating officials, former Olympians and young athletes who had been with the fallen skaters at a camp in Kansas before their fatal flight to Washington D.C.
“It makes me really grateful to have the opportunity to still skate, especially with the parents being lost,” said Victoria Alcantara, a 19-year-old who has been training in Colorado Springs since the summer and is originally from Australia.
“It made me think about how much [parents] sacrificed for us, and every skater should be super grateful that they’re still here. And how quickly life can go and how much we have to cherish those around us,” Alcantara added through tears.
Twenty-eight athletes, family members and coaches were traveling from Wichita, Kansas last Wednesday after participating in a development camp, according to U.S. Figure Skating. A total of 64 people aboard the American Airlines Flight 5342 died after colliding with a Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers, who also died, on Wednesday, Jan. 29. The crash left no survivors.
U.S. Olympic officials said the 11 skaters who were aboard were between 13 and 16 years old. They had stayed in Kansas after watching their peers get crowned U.S. champions in the junior and senior levels. Their extended stay in Wichita included a camp experience with drills, and time to train together and inspire one another, said Justin Dillon, senior director of athlete high performance for U.S. Figure Skating.
“The energy, excitement and joy was felt by everyone,” Dillon said during the vigil in Colorado Springs. “The only thing we heard throughout the camp… was that it was not long enough. These athletes loved to skate.”
Christy Kall, who competed in the 1964 Winter Olympics, compared the feeling of sorrow among the figure skating community to the pain following a 1961 plane crash that killed the U.S. Figure Skating team in Belgium.
“It’s the same gut-wrenching stomach ache, tight throat,” Kall said Monday.
Kall was 13 years old then, and lost 10 people out of her Colorado Springs rink, including her coach.
Many of the young skaters who died last week aspired to follow in Kall’s footsteps and make it to the Olympics, according to Samuel Auxier, interim CEO of U.S. Figure Skating, in a statement released Sunday.
“We will never forget them. May their passion and excellence inspire us and give us strength in the days ahead. For now, our hearts are heavy with sorrow, and we stand with their families and friends as we grieve this unspeakable loss,” Auxier said.
In addition to offering counseling services, U.S. Figure Skating has established the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund for families directly impacted by the incident.
The regional jet out of Wichita, Kansas, carried 60 passengers and four crew and was preparing to land when it collided with the UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, which was on a training exercise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The cause of the crash 3 miles south of the White House and U.S. Capitol was still under investigation Monday as crews recovered wreckage from the Potomac River.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
