
Olympic Skater Responds to D.C. Plane Crash: ‘My Heart Is Shattered’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton shared his reaction to the accident in D.C. Wednesday night when a military helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight.
“There are no words. Nothing that can truly represent the devastation caused by the plane crash in Washington DC last night,” Hamilton said Thursday morning. “A tragedy that claimed the lives of skaters, coaches, parents and officials. My heart is shattered for our skating community. Please pray for the families!”
The official X account for U.S. Figure Skating shared that “several members of our skating community” were aboard the plane when it crashed. Everyone involved in the incident — over 64 people — is presumed to have died. CBS News reported as of Jan. 31 that 40 bodies have been recovered thus far.
“Athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” U.S. Figure Skating said. “We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
The total number of members of the U.S. figure skating community aboard the plane was 14.
U.S. skater and gold medalist Brian Boitano shared that the skating community is “really connected. So when something happens to one of us, we all feel it and we all try to gather around for support.”
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Two Russian skaters, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, were on the flight, too.
Boitano said Naumov and Shishkova were caring companions who were “creating the next generation of champions for America. It’s a huge loss for our skating community, not only just their coaching but them as people,” he said.
Just hours after the skating community lost members in the crash, Dick Button, a 95-year-old two-time Olympic skating champ passed away after a decline in health. Many of Button’s peers were on the flight.
Hamilton shared photos of himself with Button on his Instagram.
“Too many laughs to count! I will miss Dick Button everyday for the rest of my days,” he said.
Hamilton shared that Button was very helpful to his career, though he was hard to please.
“Basically, I spent the last five years of my amateur career doing everything in my power to shut him,” Hamilton joked previously. “He was up there not to be a cheerleader, but to be an analyst, and so his criticisms were — to me — very inspiring and very informative.”
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