The closely-knit skating community is mourning over the loss of Washington D.C plane crash victims, including teenaged-skaters, their parents, and coaches.
Bonnie Lewis, a coach with the Kansas City Figure Skating Club, recalled her first meeting with Inna Volyanskaya when she was eight years old.
In the later years, Lewis would also skate alongside Volyanskaya’s daughter while her childhood best friend had the plane crash victim as her coach.
“I saw (the passenger list) and when I saw Inna’s name; my heart just stopped,” she was quoted as saying by The Kansas City Star. “It’s honestly still shocking. The skating community is such a small community. It’s a small world and it’s very close knit. It’s just gonna take a long time to recover from this.”
Lewis and her sister were gifted a figure skating dress, as a child, by Volyanskaya as they couldn’t afford one.
“She was just a great coach, but then also just like a really nice person too,” Lewis said.
“We couldn’t buy one ourselves, so she was like, ‘Hey, I have this figure skating dress and I thought of you.’ Just out of the blue, this random act of kindness. We still have the dress,” she added.
Volyanskaya was a decorated figure skater turned coach attending the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, held from January 20 to 26, in Wichita. She stayed along with one of her skaters at the camp.
“We are devastated to hear the news of American Eagle flight 5342. Our thoughts and prayers are with our skating family during this difficult time,” The Washington Figure Skating Club, where she coached, posted on Facebook Thursday morning.
Volyanskaya and her skating partner, Valery Spiridonov, won silver at the 1980 St. Ivel International, gold at the 1980 Blue Swords, silver at the 1981 Prague Skate, gold at the 1982 Grand Prix International St. Gervais and gold at the 1982 Nebelhorn Trophy.
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