Colorado skating community honors victims of deadly Washington, D.C. mid-air crash
The bodies of all 67 people killed in last week's midair collision in Washington, D.C. have been recovered and, among them, included figure skaters, their coaches, and families. Some Colorado ice skaters had friends who died in that crash between a plane and a U.S. Army helicopter.
The figure skating community in Colorado took part in a nationwide moment of silence Monday to honor the victims.
Colorado's ice skating community joined hundreds of others from clubs across the country, taking center ice to remember those lost on Flight 5342. Skaters attended memorial events at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs and the South Suburban Sports Complex in Highlands Ranch.
"This one is Brielle -- she's my age. This one's Gina and she's 13. This one's Everly and she's 13. This one's Olivia -- we don't really know her age. And this one's Everly's sister," 11-year-old Tara Groff said, pointing to flowers dedicated to those children who were killed.
Tara said she last saw her friends after a national development camp, as they boarded their flight in Wichita, Kansas.
"It was the same flight that was right next to me, and I was just realizing that they were on that flight," she said.
"We are a family and we care so deeply about all of those in the skating community, so to lose some of our family, everybody wants to come together," Justin Dilion, the senior director of athlete high performance for U.S. Figure Skating, told the CBS News affiliate in Colorado Springs. "It's just starting to set in. The last couple of days, I guess at U.S. Figure Skating, we have been in go mode to make sure we can do right by any possible way we can do right for the families."
For others on the ice, like Elena Hayes, the victims were strangers, but still part of their community.
"They were so, so talented," Hayes said. "They were coming back from a camp that all of us just wish we could go to. It's- not many people get to go. So they were the future."
Now, the skating community is forever changed.
"It's very hard to measure," Lisa May, president of the Denver, Colorado Figure Skating Club said at the Highlands Ranch memorial. "There are a lot of people who skate, but not very many who rise to the very top."