On February 14, 1961, The United States Figure Skating team was getting ready to board Sabena Flight 548. They were on their way to the World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) later that week. As they were boarding the plane, an Associated Press reporter stopped them so he could take their picture. They eagerly agreed to pose and after the picture was taken, they boarded the plane that would take them to Belgium before boarding another flight to Prague. That picture is currently one of the most iconic photos of figure skating out there because in just a few hours the entire 1961 U.S. Figure Skating Team would be dead. On the morning of February 15, their plane crashed in a field in Belgium while waiting to land. Not only did a generation of the most elite skaters die but so did the United States dominance in international figure skating.
The team trained their whole lives for the opportunity to represent their country on the world stage. They wanted to succeed in doing what they loved the most. They spent countless hours at ice rinks stroking, jumping, spinning, and doing figures. In a sport where years of hard work and dedication are measured in just a few minutes, the stakes were very high. Out of all the people competing, only the top three in each event would get to go to Prague.
Two of the skaters on the team who were favored to medal at Worlds also happened to be sisters and their mother was their coach. One of them was teenage ladies champion Laurence Owen, who was put on the ice by her mother, Maribel Vinson Owen. You might think that being the national champion would be phenomenal, but according to Sports Illustrated, in the Owen house, she was just another champion. Her sister, Maribel Owen Jr. and her partner Dudley Richards were pair’s champions, and her mother, Maribel Vinson, was a nine time ladies champion, a record that was equaled in 2005 when Michelle Kwan won her ninth U.S. title, as well as a six time pair’s champion.Â
The plane crash shook the entire figure skating world. The World Figure Skating Championships were canceled to mourn the lost team. Memorials were set up on the crash site and at their hometown rinks. Imagine, training your whole life for the world championships only to have everything go up in smoke before you even get there. The United States Figure Skating Association was hit hard because of the plane crash. Since the tragedy no U.S. figure skating team has flown overseas on the same plane.
Why is this important? In my opinion, this is one of the most under-reported tragedies in sports history. I know about this tragedy because I’ve been skating for about eight years. If an entire football team, such as the Baltimore Ravens, was killed in a plane crash twenty years ago, it would still be talked about today. Since figure skating is a smaller sport, that isn’t the case. I’m telling you about this tragedy because the team’s legacy still lives on today. They may be gone, but they’re far from being forgotten. They’ve inspired countless generations of figure skaters to keep doing what they love in order to remember those lost and to tell the tale of those left behind.
In 2011, the United States Figure Skating Association released a movie called Rise, which is about the 1961 figure skating team. Its tagline is “Can the end of one dream give rise to another?” In the years following the tragedy, the answer to that question is yes. After the tragedy, a memorial fund was established to help skaters such as Michelle Kwan, 2010 Olympic men’s champion Evan Lysacek and World champion ice dancers (and 2014 Olympic gold medalists!)  Meryl Davis and Charlie White achieve their dreams. In 2011 the entire team was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame. In the years following the tragedy, the United States began its rise to the top of figure skating again thanks to skaters such as Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill and Scott Hamilton and their Olympic Gold medals. Even though we’ve managed to bounce back from that terrible plane crash, the 1961 team, as well as their hopes and dreams, are now frozen in time.    Â
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Images courtesy of Associated Press and Leominster Daily Enterprise
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