- The Legacy On Ice benefit event, with American artistic skating stars, paid tribute to the 67 people who died when an army helicopter crashed with an American Airlines flight and crashed into the Potomac River on January 29.
- The skaters described both the difficulty of dealing with the tragedy and the feeling of community support they obtained from the event. Some spilled tears during or after their performances.
- The intention of the event was to raise money for figures skaters, lifeguards and all families affected by the accident.
Maxim Naumov cried on his knees at the end of his performance in honor of his parents, cleaned the tears as he skated the ice and held an electric candle in the air while the applause rained. Amber Glenn broke when he finished skating, like Isabella Aparicio, 13, who acted in memory of her brother, Franco, her father, Luciano.
“There was no dry eye that was found anywhere,” said skater Madison Cock.
A low murmur of crying crossed a long moment of silence while fans lit the sand with their cell phones, riding waves of emotion through a moving artistic skating show on Sunday in the capital of the nation to remember and collect money for the victims of the collision in the air outside the Ronald Reagan Reagan Washington National Airport.
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The Legacy On Ice benefit event presented a group full of stars of some of the best Figures of the USA. That included 28 members of the figurative skating community, some of whom lived and trained in the Washington area.
“Everyone afflicts themselves in their own way, and the last month has really been a challenge for many of us only to deal with the magnitude of this loss,” said Evan Bates, who with Rock won the Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022.
The American icons of the Sports Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano present the show, which included performances by Glenn, Johnny Weir and the current male world champion Ilia Malinin, along with moved tributes to the victims.
Max Naumov reacts after acting on March 2, 2025, in Washington, at the Legacy On Ice event, a figure of figure skating to support families and loved ones affected by the aviation incident on January 29, the Aviation incident outside the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
“We are not helpless,” Baitano said when he opened the show. “As skaters, we learned to be resistant and always find a way forward that is positive.”
Ted Leonsis, Chief of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, who organized the event together with the American artistic skating, the DC Fire & EMS Foundation and the Greater Washington Community Foundation, hopes that it will do it in Capital One Arena to help families in the healing process of the way in which concerts and sports in Madison Square Garden made in New York in 2001 after 9/11.
“Sports can play this role of call and healing,” Leonsis said. “Our goal is to allow the Sane community, a kind of collective hug for these communities, but then we want to raise a lot of money.”
Dasher’s boards had 67 stars, one for each of the victims, and the skaters put flowers on a candle before starting their routines.
“We are all here to support each other, whether our friends who were on that plane, family members, coaches, teammates, loved ones,” said Jason Brown, bronze medalist of the 2014 Olympic team, who skated for “the impossible dream” of Josh Groban. “We all travel through this sport. We can do what we love. And traveling is such a great part of what we do, so everything hit us very hard because this is only an integral part of what we do, as well as those are closer people.”
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Glenn started things by acting until “Rise Up” from Andra Day and broke in tears on central ice when he finished. Weir, whose family moved to Newark, Delaware, when he was 12 years old to follow his skating career, dedicated his performance to the members of the Artistic Skating Club of the University of Delaware that were on Flight 5342 American of Wichita, Kansas, after a national development camp there coinciding with the artistic skating championship of the United States.
“It was a very traumatic experience for me and really devastating for me to listen when everything that happened happened, and I really wanted to have something that everyone could remember as a family, like a community that we remind them of them,” said Malinin. “All our daily life, every time we step on the ice, we always think of them. Every time we compete, they will always be in our hearts.”
Peggy Fleming, 1968 Olympic champion, said he hopes that the event “Sane and gives strength to our skaters in the future.” Alysa Liu wants to try to honor the memory of the lost so that “can continue.”
“It’s still a fight and it was a fight,” said Liu, who acted with “Hero” by Mariah Carey. “Meeting and seeing everyone again has been the most reassuring sensation. And it’s just because everyone knows exactly how they all feel.”
Ilia Malinin acts on March 2, 2025, in Washington, at the Legacy On Ice event, a tribute of artistic skating to support families and loved ones affected by collision in the air of January 29, 2025 above DC (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Forty -one years after winning gold at the Olympic Games, Scott Hamilton skated on the ice and directed a prayer. “Imagine” sounded from the sand speakers during a joint performance, Malinin dazzled the crowd with his routine full of jump and “Hold My Hand” of Lady Gaga was the soundtrack of the great end of the emotional show of more than two hours.
“It was just an incredible show,” said the interim artistic skating CEO of the United States, Sam Auxier. “You could see even with Ilia the passion and feelings about what happened in its skating.”
Among the crowd of more than 15,000 were hundreds of lifeguards and their relatives. Some came from places as far away as Baltimore to be part of rescue and recovery efforts.
“This was an incredibly challenging scene for those lifeguards,” said the executive director of the DC Fire and EMS Foundation Amy Mauro. “The things they witnessed are very difficult and will remain with them for a long time. This is also part of their grieving and healing process.”
In addition to being a meeting place for figures skaters, lifeguards and all families affected by the accident, the intention was to raise money for all of them.
“We have heard of families about things like the university registration for young children who are in primary school today, but also things like the therapy and medical care they need,” said the president of External Affairs and the Monumental Administrative Director Monica Dixon. “Each family will choose how to use those funds in the best way they choose.”
The event was broadcast live in Monumental Sports Network and broadcast on Peacock. NBC will show an act on March 30.
“That is what we expect: we propose many donations that way,” Leansis said. “People care. The lesson in this is that, for me, if you customize something like this, you can join and do the right things in the right way.”
