Located in front of a Boston ice rink, where some victims of Wednesday aircraft in Washington, DC, were formed as figures skaters, a visibly emotional Nancy Kerrigan said that he felt thrown at the installation by Cry the murders and find strength in the community of his sport.
“I’m not sure how to process – said through the tears Thursday morning at the Norwood installation. “That’s why I’m here.”
Kerrigan, a Stoneham native who won two Olympic medals, trained in the same club as two teen skaters who were killed in the fall next to each of their mothers and two coaches.
They were among the 64 people aboard a flight of American Airlines who collided with a military helicopter when approaching the National Reagan Airport on a flight of Wichita, Kansas.
The photographs of the victims of falls of the aircraft of the Boston Rink Skating Club are displayed on the court court, on Thursday, January 30, 2025, in Norwood, Mass. On the left, Skater Jinna Han, Skater Spencer Lane and coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova.AP Photo/Charles Krupe
Everyone on board both planes is killed in what was likely The worst disaster of US aviation in almost a quarter of a centuryThe officials said on Thursday.
“It is only such a tragic event and we have gone through tragedies before as North -Americans, as people, and we are strong, and I suppose it is how we respond to this,” Kerrigan said at the Norwood Skating Facility. by the Boston Skating Club.
“Tell the people around you that you love them because you never know,” he added.
The ex -Olympic Parera Nancy Kerrigan, on the right, walks with the companion of the Olympic skater Tenley Albright, on the Boston skating, where six members of the club community, including athletes, coaches and family, were killed in a cabbage · Airline for a helicopter on Wednesday in Washington, Thursday, January 30, 2025, in Norwood, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupe)Ap
Doug Zeghibe, the club’s CEO, identified the six members of the organization killed as Jinna Han and her mother, Jin Han, from Mansfield; Spencer Lane and his mother, Christine Lane, of Barrington, Rhode Island; and a couple of coaches, the married couple Evgenia Shishkova Vadim Naumov.
The six returned from a development camp that followed the United States Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Coaches, from Norwood, won the pairs title at the 1994 World Championships and competed twice at the Olympic Games.
“I imagine them right here,” said the legend of Figures Skating Tenley AlbrightHis voice was broken as he managed on his shoulder to the side of the track. “The coaches always stayed at the entrance. The skaters had just flew all over the ice, doing notable things, inspiring -for us. For us, it’s terrible and sad and we just feel like we have to be together “.
Kerrigan said he never worked with Shishkova and Naumov, but he saw them many times over the years and remembered his hard but kind and welcoming style.
Albright came to the facility on Thursday afternoon with Kerrigan, also in search of the community.
Six roses and white photos of victims are shown at the Skating Club in Boston, Thursday, January 30, 2025 in Norwood, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupe)Ap
“We came here because we needed to be together,” she said with tears.
“I certainly don’t have answers,” he added. “I really can’t believe it has happened.”
For her and other skaters, the tragedy Memories evoked for the hassle From the 1961 plane crash in Brussels, Belgium, which killed 72 people, including the 18 members of a North -American skating team who went to the world championships, along with 16 family members. , coaches and skating officials.
Emergency response units evaluate aircraft wreck on the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. An American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan’s National Airport. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)Pictures of getty
Paul George, a former national champion and president of Emeritus Figures Skating of the United States Figure Skating Foundation, was also at the Norwood installation on Thursday. His wife woke him up this morning with news of the fall, as his father had done 64 years ago.
“Like today, 1961 was a tragic time. It was the day the music stopped. Very like that, “he said, pointing to the desolate track.
The Skating Community Honorary and Crying the Victims, said George, and over time the skaters will return to the ice.
“There will come a time when music will be running again and we will move forward,” he said.
The Associated Press material was used in this report.