Boston Skating Club is at the center of another airplane tragedy

Nancy Kerrigan stepped to the microphone at the Boston Skating Club in Norwood, Massachusetts, visibly shaken. 

Just hours earlier she had heard the news of Wednesday night’s tragedy, in which 64 people aboard a commercial airliner died after it collided with a military helicopter midair near Reagan Washington National Airport.

Six of those victims were affiliated with the Boston club: two coaches, two skaters and two mothers, according to CEO Doug Zeghibe. He said the group was returning home from the National Development Camp associated with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.

Kerrigan, a two-time Olympic figure skating medalist and alum of the club, spoke with tears running down her face.

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“We just wanted to be here and be part of our community,” Kerrigan said. “I feel for the athletes, the skaters, the families, but anyone that was on that plane — not just the skaters. It’s such a tragic event. We’ve been through tragedies before as Americans, as people, and we are strong. It’s how we respond to it. My response was to be with people I care about and I love and I needed to support.” 

Boston Skating Club is among the nation’s top figure skating programs. It dates back to 1912, making it the third-oldest figure skating club in continuous existence in the U.S. 

This is not the first time the organization has been at the center of an airplane accident.

Zeghibe said Wednesday’s crash evoked painful memories from 1961, when Sabena Flight 548 — a plane carrying 72 people including all 18 members of the U.S. figure skating team and 16 others accompanying them — crashed on approach. There were no survivors. 

“Almost half of everybody on board that plane (in 1961) were from this club. It had long, long reaching implications for the skating club and for the sport in this country, because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well,” Zeghibe said. “It’s been a long time in redeveloping it. I personally feel that this club, the Skating Club of Boston, has just now, almost 60 years later, been coming out of the shadow of that 1961 crash. So this is particularly devastating.”

Kerrigan is just one of dozens of Olympic, world, North American and U.S. champions produced over the years at the program.

She won a bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the silver at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Just before the latter event, an assailant struck Kerrigan’s knee with a police baton after a practice session at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. It was later revealed the attacker was hired by Jeff Gillooly, the husband of Kerrigan’s rival Tonya Harding. 

Kerrigan recovered and was able to compete in the Olympics, earning second place behind Oksana Baiul. 

“Going through something tragic, not like this but myself, the community stood behind me,” she said Thursday. “I’m grateful for that and so it’s my turn now to hopefully be here.” 

Zeghibe identified the skaters as Spencer Lane and Jinna Han and their moms, Christine Lane and Jin Han. Officials said the two coaches were former Russian world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

Zeghibe called Han a “great performer, a great competitor, and off the ice, a great kid.”

“The Han family, we watched Jin just grow up here from just a tiny little tike into this amazingly mature 13-year-old,” Zeghibe said. “We talk a lot about the athletes, but I think we’re going to miss their moms as much. Just really good people.”

Elin Schran, the founder of Joy Skate Productions who works closely with Boston Skating Club, recalled Lane “beaming” after competing in his first professional show last December in Cambridge.

“He came to me smiling, ear to ear, saying, ‘I get it now. I understand,” she said. “He started to discover this connection with the audience and that joy that he was giving to other people through his gift.” 

Shishkova, 52, and Naumov, 55, won the pairs figure skating event at the 1994 World Championship and had been living in the U.S. since 1998, after their retirement from competitive skating, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Shishkova and Naumov were “development coaches” at Boston Skating Club, Zeghibe said, helping kids as they began to learn the sport.  

Tenley Albright, a two-time world champion in 1953 and 1955, and Boston Skating Club alum, spoke in front of a rink Thursday with no skaters on it. She said the quiet scene behind her was abnormal because the ice is typically filled with athletes at that time. 

“I really can’t believe that it happened, because I picture them right here,” Albright said, pointing to the rink. “The coaches always stood at that entrance. The skaters just flew all over the ice, doing remarkable things, inspiring all of us. To us, it’s just terrible, sad and we just feel we need to be together.” 

Asked how the Boston Skating Club comes back from Wednesday’s tragedy, Paul George — a member and former president of the U.S. Figure Skating Foundation — said it will start by grieving.

“We will honor the athletes, honor the families,” he said. “But I think we also will encourage people to come back and get back on the ice, get about their lives. Be more focused, if ever. We will survive.”