By Gina Capellazzi, Team FSO website administrator
Cell phone photos by Gina Capellazzi
On March 2, I was among the sold out crowd in attendance at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. for the Legacy on Ice benefit show to honor the victims of American Airlines flight 5342, the tragic aviation crash that took place on January 29, 2025, where 67 people died, including 28 members of the figure skating community who were coming home from the National Development Camp in Wichita, Kansas.
As soon as I heard about the show, I felt compelled to attend it to show my support, and to represent some of my friends in the sport who wanted to be there themselves, but just couldn’t get there. I did not personally know any of the victims. However, the mere fact that these young people were sitting right in front of me just days before this crash, and were coming home from the same place I had just came home from days before was why I felt obliged to be there.
So I made the necessary arrangements and while things did not go as planned, particularly on the way home, I would have done it all over again to witness the love, support and strength that was shown by the members of the figure skating community, both past and present.
Outside the arena, there was a beautiful tribute to the victims and first responders as a huge American flag hung from two D.C. fire truck ladders. When entering the arena, though the atmosphere felt subdued, it also felt a bit normal as people stopped to give hugs and talk to friends from their skating clubs while making their way through the busy concourse. A scene that plays out at most skating competitions and events. I even saw friends while standing in line for security and before the show started. I also couldn’t help but notice while standing in a line that a member of the Skating Club of Northern Virginia was passing out friendship bracelets as they walked by. Within minutes of being in the arena, I felt the presence of the skating community that I have become apart over the last 11 years.
The show itself begin at 3 p.m., but there were three numbers that took place prior to the start of the broadcast. Two-time U.S. Champion and 2022 Olympian Ashley Cain started things off with a beautiful solo skate to “Footprints in The Sand.” Then DC Edge, the synchronized skating team from the DC area, performed a number to “You Say.” The pre-broadcast concluded with the ice dance team of Molly Cesanek and Yehor Yehorov, skating to “Come into My Arms.”
Following Cesanek and Yehorov’s performance, the ice was resurfaced. That would be the only time the ice would be resurfaced during the show. The show’s hosts, Brian Boitano and Kristi Yamaguchi, informed the audience that the show was being livestreamed and that during the show, there would only be a few second breaks, but no intermission or breaks for ice resurfacing. In other words, this was the time to go to the bathroom or to purchase food from a concession stand. From my vantage point in an 100-level section, it appeared that most people did not move once the show started. Also during the short breaks, the audience was quiet.
The show contained a very large cast. And with each performance, you could tell that all of the skaters wanted to be there to share their grief and to find healing by being with their skating family. Each and every performance in the show came from the heart and the emotion could be easily seen on the faces of each skater as they skated their program and as they placed roses on a table with candles located rink side.
There were several moments that stood out to me during the show. In the first group, two-time Olympian Johnny Weir, who created his skating academy in Wilmington, Delaware, dedicated his “Memory” from Cats program to the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club members – coach Sasha Kirsanov and ice dancers Sean Kay and Angela Yang and their mothers, Zheheng (Lily) Li and Julia Kay. Following Weir, 14-year-old Sofia Bezkorovainaya, who finished 8th in the junior event at the U.S. Championships in Wichita, skated to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to honor her coach, Inna Volyanskaya, along with her training mates Everly Livingston and Franco Aparicio. While I didn’t know it until after the show, Sofia wore the same dress that Everly wore during the season. Upon the conclusion of her program, other young members of the Washington Figure Skating Club joined Sofia in a group number to “You’ll Be in My Heart” from The Lion King. The number ended with the members of the club kneeling in a circle center ice with Sofia standing in the middle raising up a bouquet of flowers.
At the end of the first group, two-time World champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, U.S. Champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, U.S. silver medalists Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, two-time U.S. Champion Amber Glenn, 2024 World silver medalist Isabeau Levito and 2022 World bronze medalist Alysa Liu, along with Cain, Cesanek and Yehorov skated to the song “Imagine” before gathering center ice. Then Boitano joined the skaters out on the ice and asked the audience to hold up their cell phone flashlight for a moment of silence for the victims. It got so quiet in the arena that you could hear a pin drop.
Following the moment of silence, Isabella Aparicio was introduced. Isabella lost her 14-year-old brother, Franco, and her father, Luciano, in the crash. Isabella skated to a recording of her father playing Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.” It was an extremely emotional performance and as Isabella knelt down on the ice upon the conclusion of her skate, the audience gave her a standing ovation, which made Isabella cover her eyes, hiding the tears in her eyes. The courage and strength Isabella showed in her skate is something I will never forget.
Four Continents bronze medalist Sarah Everhardt skated to “I’ll Take Care of You” by Beth Hart in tribute to the Skating Club of Northern Virginia members lost in the crash – Brielle Beyer and her mother, Justyna, Edward Zhou and his parents, Yu Zhou and Kaiyan Mao, and Cory Haynos and his parents, Stephanie and Roger. 1998 Olympic Champion Ilia Kulik skated a tribute to his student Olivia Eve Ter of the Ion FSC.
Capital Theater on Ice, the local Theatre on Ice team that Everly and Alydia Livingston were a part of, paid tribute to their teammates with a wings compilation program with music to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and “Flying” by Cody Fry.
Later in that group of performances, Four Continents bronze medalist Jimmy Ma performed to “I’ll Fly Away”, which was the music Jinna Han, one of the members of the Skating Club of Boston killed in crash skated to this season. Fellow Skating Club of Boston members Alisa and Misha skated afterwards to “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” After their skate, 2025 U.S. pewter medalist Maxim Naumov took the ice, publicly skating for the first time since he lost his parents and coaches, 1994 World Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadym Naumov. He chose to skate their favorite song, “The City That Doesn’t Exist.” Before Max took the ice, 1992 Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie noted that Evgenia and Vadym would dance together every time that song played. Max gave an extremely emotional tribute to his parents. He ended his program on his knees, center ice, looking up with tears streaming down his eyes. The crowd, who also was crying, stood in applause. Though his back was to me in that moment, all I wanted to do was run on the ice and give Max a big hug. I don’t know how he and Isabella, who both lost two family members, mustered the courage to perform the way they did, but just like Isabella’s program, Max’s program will resonate with me for a lifetime. As Max conclude his skate, standing to his left was his training mates, Jimmy, Alisa and Misha. The four then skated a lovely skate to “Ave Maria,” which ended with Max surrounded by his training mates as they raised a candle in the air together.
During the third group of performances, some of the first responders who were at the crash scene, were recognized. They were seated front row near where the skaters were placing the roses on the table. Jason Brown came on the ice and gave the first responders a bouquet of flowers. Then a group of skaters from the ION Figure Skating Club took the ice wearing LED costumes that displayed motivational words. Alysa Liu then skated to Mariah Carey’s “Hero” as a tribute to all of the first responders. Later in the group, members of the cast stood on the ice wearing the red Development Team jackets while a video from the National Development Camp in Wichita was shown in the arena and on the livestream. In the video, it was mentioned that a highlight of the camp was a stroking class to the song “Halo” by Beyonce, led by Yebin Mok. So upon the conclusion of the video, with Yebin leading it, the cast recreated the stroking class. After that, Yebin, along with Ashley Cain and Grace Gold, who were also instructors at the National Development Camp skated together. It was such a heartfelt tribute to the 11 National Development Camp skaters killed in the crash.
The final skater of the show, World Champion Ilia Malinin’s performance, sort of puzzled me at first. The afternoon had been filled with ballads or lyrical pieces of music, but Ilia’s choice of music was different. He skated to the piece “Hope” by NF, the rapper of Ilia’s short program music this season, “RUNNING.” During the show, Daphne Backman, of Ice-Dance.com, sent a text explaining to me that the song is about success, dreaming big, grinding when people tell you to quit and digging deep when you have nothing left in the tank. Though I didn’t know the significance of the song, or its story until reading Daphne’s text, watching Ilia skate with so much intensity and power, mouthing the words as he skated it, created such a powerful moment.
Following his skate, the whole cast joined the ice and skated to Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand,” while the legends joined them on a carpet at the end of the rink.
The almost three hour show went by in a heart beat. I could have sat there for another three hours, crying my eyes out, watching the cast pay tribute to those lost on Flight 5342. It’s still hard to put into words, or to find the right words to accurately describe the show. However, what keeps coming back is community. From the skating clubs and skating fans in the arena, to the past and present skaters, to all the people involved with the show, to the fans watching at home, skating has this community that is like no other. Over the past 11 years that I have actively been involved in skating media, I have seen this community come together on a number of occasions and pick each other up when the unexpected occurs. Who can forget the four-hour live fundraiser that Kaitlyn Weaver put together to raise money for the UN Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund? Even if I was quite young, I still remember “Celebration of a Life” in February 1996, a tribute show to honor Sergei Grinkov. Though I wasn’t alive for the 1961 plane crash, my mom and I went to see “Rise” in the theaters in 2011, which was a wonderful tribute to those we lost in that plane crash and their legacy that lives on through the Memorial Fund. In recent years, the skating community has lost Olympians Denis Ten and Chris Reed, both who are remembered annually at their namesake competitions. The skating community sure has had its fair share of adversity and trying times, but through it all, the amount of resilience, strength and love that is demonstrated is what I admire so much about our community. And from what was shown on the ice at the Capital One Arena on March 2, this skating community will once again find the strength to pick up the pieces from this tragedy and move forward together.
I continue to pray for all those who were lost on Flight 5342 and their families, and will do whatever I can as a figure skating journalist to never forget the 28 members of the figure skating community that we lost on January 29.
