Among those athletes competing in Wichita are former and hopefully future Olympians, many of whom are also defending national champions.

Six people associated with Zeghibe’s club in Norwood, Massachusetts, were killed in the plane crash: skater Spencer Lane and his mother, Molly, skater Jinna Han and her mother, Jin, and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, a married couple who were world champion pairs figure skaters from Russia in the 1990s.

At least a dozen figure skaters, coaches and their family members were on the plane that crashed near Washington, D.C., including two teenage competitors and a Russian husband-and-wife coaching duo.

The Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe pointed out the parallels in the 1961 plane crash and the collision on Wednesday, January 29

Members of the U.S. figure skating community were traveling on the commercial jet that collided with a military helicopter outside Washington. They were returning from a training camp in Kansas.

After the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, some young athletes stayed a couple of additional days for further development.

The world of competitive figure skating is back, The U.S. Figure Skating Championships will take place this weekend in Wichita, Kansas, and will be carried on NBC, Peacock, and USA Network.

The Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships air live this week from Wichita, Kansas, on NBC Sports, USA Network and Peacock. The field includes every national champion from last January: Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates and the pairs’ team of Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea.

The ties to Boston conjured up painful memories for Nathan Birch, a Baltimore skater who grew up training at that very same club. He remembered seeing memorials from the 1961 crash, which killed several Boston club members, on the walls and in an upstairs lounge.

He was the winner of two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world championships. A cause of death has not been provided.

Fourteen members of the skating community were aboard the plane Wednesday as they headed home from a national development camp following the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas.