Figure skating community "devastated" after D.C. plane crash

• Six victims were from Boston's skating club, including two coaches — 1994 World Pair Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
• Zeghibe said "to the best of their knowledge" 14 skaters were on board the flight.

The victims included athletes, coaches and family members returning from a camp in Wichita, Kansas. Some of them were as young as 11. Many skaters practiced together six or seven days a week, Zeghibe said.

• "We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims' families closely in our hearts," U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.

Olympians Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski opened part of Thursday's European Figure Skating Championships with a moment of silence. Both emotionally shared what a tremendous loss this is for the tight-knit community.

• "I know our skating community will never be the same," Lipinski said.

Flashback: This moment is reminiscent of a tragedy in 1961 when a plane headed to a figure skating championship in Prague crashed, killing 18 members of the U.S. figure skating team.

​​"You don't have to know everybody to feel that connection," Olympian Nancy Kerrigan told reporters at the Skating Club of Boston on Thursday. "We've been through the same thing — that training, that rigorous schedule of falling over and over and somehow picking yourself back up, which is the main lesson learned in skating: you get back up, keep on trying. And even when it's hard, you get back up."