Cory Hanos, deemed a powerful skater from Fairfax, Virginia, lived his dreams for a short-time before boarding the doomed American Airlines flight to Washington D.C.
The teenager made a mark in the U.S. Figure Skating national development camp in Wichita, Kan after finishing third at Eastern Sectionals in the intermediate men’s division.
A day before the tragic incident, Haynos, one of the top 40-45 athletes among the 140 selected for the national camp, launched himself into the air, rotated thrice like a gyroscope, before landing on one foot.
The national development camp gave him wings, landing a triple axel, one of skating’s hardest jumps. He had landed it earlier, too, at 16 but this time he caught the attention of the U.S scout.
“I’d been watching him work on it all week, just fighting to do it,” Mark Mitchell, one of U.S. Figure Skating’s coaches at the camp, told The New York Times in a telephone interview. “So when I saw him, I just said, ‘Oh, my gosh! Cory just landed the triple axel!’ And he was so happy, just so happy.”
Haynos’ sister was the one to inspire him to the ice. He was coached by Kalle Strid and Mikael Olofsson.
The teenager was accompanied by his mother, Stephanie, and his father, Roger on the flight.
His mother also served on the board of the Skating Club of Northern Virginia and was always there to help.
Cory and his parents are survived by his sister, Emily, a college student.
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