BOSTON — It’s impossible to comprehend what Doug Lane felt in the seconds before taking the microphone on Wednesday, ahead of the start of the World Figure Skating Championships.
In a moment, the crowd at TD Garden and the skating community would look to him to say something poignant. Not only to remember his wife Christine and son Spencer, who died in the Washington D.C. plane crash that killed 28 members of the figure skating community, but to be the face and voice of those grieving as they gathered on the sport’s biggest non-Olympic stage.
Lane followed a video tribute and remarks from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu as well as Sam Auxier, the President of U.S. Figure Skating and Jae Youl Kim, the President of the International Skating Union.
Few things define greatness in figure skating more than strength and grace under intense pressure and scrutiny. Lane’s son Spencer, a 16-year-old with a promising skating future, displayed that on the ice. As he spoke to the crowd and to all those still mourning, Doug Lane, a cyber security marketing consultant, embodied those traits.
“They haven’t invented the vocabulary to explain the grief we’re all feeling, so I thought I would use my time today to share a few thoughts of hope,” Lane began.
A remembrance is shown of Jinna Han, who died in the American Airlines plane crash in January, in which 28 people associated with the figure skating community were killed on their way home from the national championships at the figure skating world championships, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)AP
He asked the community to think not just of who’d been lost but to care for the athletes who are still here.
“I hope we can support them and their skating journeys and paths to happiness off the ice as well,” he said. “They are hurting.”
He encouraged listeners to support those killed in the crash who didn’t have the figure skating community to mourn with too.
“Extend love and support to people beyond the skating community who have been impacted,” he said. “People like Christopher Collins, a compassionate businessman, adventurer and adopter of dogs from just down the road in North Dighton, Massachusetts.”
He thanked the first responders called to the crash scene and then challenged elected officials to use the tragedy as an impetus to improve the safety of air travel.
“Some accidents were unavoidable. This one was not,” he said.
The 28 members of the skating community, including six connected to the Figure Skating Club of Boston, were among the 67 people who died in the accident. Both their absence and spirit were felt on Wednesday as their memory filled the building.
As she waited in the locker room watching the tribute on the screen, Austria’s Gabriella Izzo fought tears as she and her partner Luc Maierhofer prepared to begin the pairs short program on the first night of competition.
The challenge of being first after the memorial would have been difficult for anyone, but Izzo lives with Max Naumov, an American skater whose parents were coaches in the Figure Skating Club of Boston and died on the flight. He was in the crowd on Wednesday and wished Izzo well before she took the ice.
“It’s hard to put into words the emotions,” she said. “You appreciate everything that much more. The way the Skating Club of Boston came together is the embodiment of what we want our sport to be.”
Shortly after, when Americans Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov finished their routines, they held photos of some of the victims of the plane crash as a gesture of remembrance.
“They have played a big part in us being here today, all their support and love every day,” Efimova said. “I feel the impact they have had in the quite short time that we have known them is just huge.”
Danny O’Shea, who was part of the second American team to compete, said he hoped to skate in their memories going forward.
“It was a terrible tragedy. You’re never going to get over it,” he said. “We’ll carry it with us through every performance, probably for the rest of our careers.”
