(WASHINGTON) — A tearful tribute from the United States’ most decorated figure skaters coupled with multiple fundraising efforts has garnered $1.3 million on behalf of the Washington, D.C., plane crash victims, organizers said Thursday.
“Legacy on Ice,” a figure skating tribute show that took place last month at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C., honored the 67 lives lost in the fatal midair collision on Jan. 29 — with nearly half of the passengers being members of the figure skating community.
On Thursday, almost exactly nine weeks since the crash, Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE), which co-hosted the event with U.S. Figure Skating (USFS), announced a total of $1.3 million had been raised from the sold-out event and subsequent fundraising.
“This is evidence of what good that can happen when people band together,” MSE CEO Ted Leonsis said in a statement provided to ABC News, emphasizing the “herculean effort and generosity” of organizers and the Washington community.
“The kids that were lost — skating is what they loved to do, so it only felt right that that’s how we remember them,” two-time U.S. national champion Gracie Gold said in a video compilation of the “Legacy on Ice” event posted by Team USA on Friday.
The midair crash between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Eagle Flight 5342 above the Potomac River left no survivors and was the first major commercial crash since 2009.
The incident was particularly poignant within the skating community given the sport’s history with aviation tragedy — in 1961, the entire U.S. national team died aboard Sabena Flight 548 while traveling to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Last week, the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships took place in Boston, marking two months since the fatal crash in D.C. and 64 years since the 1961 tragedy.
Pausing from the fierce competition, skaters and spectators took time to remember the victims.
Maxim Naumov, 23, who lost both of his parents in the crash, received a one-minute standing ovation at a gala on Sunday that concluded the competition.
“I don’t have the strength or the passion or the drive or the dedication of one person anymore. It’s three people,” Naumov said in an interview with NBC News’ Craig Melvin last week. He described his parents, 1994 Russian world champions and coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, as “superheroes.”
At last month’s “Legacy on Ice” tribute, Naumov performed to his parents’ favorite song in Russian, “The city that does not exist.”
He opened with choreography clasping each of his hands around the empty air on either side of him, symbolizing him reaching for his parents’ hands that are no longer here.
Naumov’s performance concluded with him sobbing on his knees and repeatedly mouthing words, which he later explained was him saying in Russian “This is for you” and “Mom and Dad, I love you.”
During the World Figure Skating Championships, a remembrance memorial featured videos of the plane victims on the TD Arena jumbotron, and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu highlighted the six members lost from the Skating Club of Boston.
Just a day after clinching his second consecutive world championship title, Ilia Malinin delivered an emotional tribute performance at the gala, in which he fought back tears and brought the audience to their feet.
Known as the “Quad God” and the first skater to land a quadruple axel in competition, Malinin also performed at “Legacy on Ice” last month, closing out the show with an upbeat, motivating number titled “Hope.”
U.S. pairs champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov displayed photos of the Skating Club of Boston members, and two-time U.S. champion Amber Glenn sported a T-shirt that said, “Skate with their spirit.”
Efimova, Mitrofanov, and Glenn also performed at “Legacy on Ice,” where they were accompanied by a cast of U.S. Figure Skating’s top stars, past and present.
Included in the lineup was 17-year-old Isabella Aparicio, who lost both her father, Luciano, and her 14-year-old brother, Franco, in the crash. Skating to a recording of her father playing “Canon in D” on the guitar, Aparicio fell to her knees at the conclusion of her routine, and the tear-ridden audience leapt to their feet in support of the skater.
“Legacy on Ice” also honored the victims’ final skating endeavor as they had been traveling home from a development camp that is hosted annually for the highest-performing youth skaters following the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The performers reenacted a skating skills class that is traditionally conducted at such camps, staging the exercise to Beyonce’s “Halo.”
“Against the backdrop of this massive tragedy, this region has provided a light in showcasing its generosity and empathy for the victims, their families, and the heroic first responders,” Leonsis said in a statement following the event.
According to MSE, donations will be distributed to USFS, the Greater Washington Community Foundation’s “DCA Together Relief Fund,” and the D.C. Fire & EMS Foundation, with each organization receiving approximately $425,000.
USFS continues to collect donations from its own fundraiser, the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund, which benefits victim family members.
Editor’s note: The author of this story has been a member of U.S. Figure Skating since 2008.
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