The Crash That Devastated U.S. Figure Skating
Nearly six decades ago, tragedy struck when the entire U.S. figure skating team was killed in a fatal plane crash on their way to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague. The loss was crushing for the country and the sport, but 57 years later, the ill-fated skaters are still being remembered by the athletes competing at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
Leading up to the 1964 Olympics, the U.S. Figure Skating team was set to compete at the world championships when their plane crashed near Brussels, Belgium. All 73 people on board, including the 18 American athletes, their coaches, several officials, and accompanying family members died, according to The Washington Post. The reason for the crash is still unknown.
That year began a difficult new chapter for the Olympic community. It was going to be a "long road back" for the U.S. figure skating world, Carl W. Gram Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Figure Skating Association, told The Montreal Gazette at the time.
That same year, the U.S. Figure Skating Memorial Fund was set up to rebuild the team and sport. Since then, the fund has raised $15 million to assist American athletes. Adam Rippon, Ashley Wagner, Peggy Fleming, Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, Meryl Davis, Charlie White, and Scott Hamilton are just a few of the famous skaters who have benefited from the memorial fund.
“If it wasn’t for the memorial fund or the people who contribute to it, I wouldn’t have been able to continue my training,” Adam Rippon said in the U.S. Figure Skating video above. "Through some really generous people I’m able to pay my coaches, able to continue my training, and keep pursuing my dream."
The same is true for his fellow past and present skaters. “These athletes, coaches, parents... never got to experience that [Olympic] dream come true, but they were a springboard for everyone that came after them,” Scott Hamilton, who won gold at the 1984 Olympics, said in the Rise figure skating documentary. “All of us that came after represent their promise and their dream.”
(h/t Time)
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