Ilia Malinin flew to D.C. on Monday after the national championships in Wichita and knew that young skaters were on the plane that crashed Wednesday.
Richard Button, who won figure skating gold for Team USA in 1948 and 1952 before going on to star as a commentator, has died, his family announced. He was 95.
"Several members" of the U.S. figure skating community were on American Airlines Flight 5342, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
The DC plane crash that killed members of the figure skating community near Reagan National Airport hit very close to home for one Arizona coach.
The two-time Olympic champion who pushed his sport to new physical heights went on to become its television voice for generations of viewers.
The Wichita skating community is reeling after several figure skaters, along with their coaches and parents, were among those killed in a midair collision.
Olympian Brian Boitano tells "CBS Mornings" about his "kind and caring" friends Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova killed in Wednesday's plane crash, and recalls giving their son an award in Wichita for the U.
Among those athletes competing in Wichita are former and hopefully future Olympians, many of whom are also defending national champions.
Dick Button, a two-time Olympic champion in figure skating, embodied the sport. He is the 'godfather of this sport,' Tara Lipinski once said.
Two teenage figure skaters, their coaches and family members among 14 members of U.S. figure skating community in deadly plane crash over D.C. airport.
Dick Button, the legendary figure skater who became the first American to win Olympic gold in the sport, died Thursday at age 95, according to U.S. Figure Skating. In 1948, Button, then 18, won the first of back-to-back Olympic titles.