Peggy Fleming Reflects on ‘Heartbreaking’ Parallels Between D.C. Midair Collision and 1961 Skating Tragedy (Exclusive)
Twenty-eight members of the figure skating community lost their lives in the January 2025 collision, evoking memories of the 1961 crash that killed 18.
Peggy Fleming, the 1968 Olympic figure skating champion, is speaking out about the devastating parallels between the recent Washington D.C. plane crash and the 1961 tragedy that shaped her early career.
Fleming, 76, attended the Legacy on Ice tribute event at Capital One Arena on March 2, honoring those lost when an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport on January 29.
Having experienced a similar loss at the start of her own skating journey—when a plane crash killed 18 members of the U.S. figure skating community en route to the 1961 World Championships in Prague—Fleming described the recent tragedy as “unreal and so heartbreaking.”
Fleming, who lost her own coach in the 1961 crash, recalled how deeply the tragedy impacted her. “But we rose up,” she said in a recent Today interview.
U.S. Figure Skating confirmed that 28 members of its community were among the 67 total victims of the January collision. Eleven of those skaters were promising young athletes from five different clubs.
Sunday’s tribute event featured an emotional performance by 23-year-old Maxim Naumov, whose parents, 1994 World Figure Skating pairs champions Evgenia “Zhenya” Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were among those lost.
Fleming told PEOPLE she wouldn’t have missed the event “for anything.”
“To watch this show tonight, this audience got the best show ever,” she said. “It has to make the skaters feel loved and supported. This was a very strong show.”
Legacy on Ice will air on NBC on March 30 at 1 p.m. ET.