Amber Glenn, a 25-year-old from Plano who defended her U.S. figure skating championship last week in Wichita, was also among the community within the sport devastated by the news. “I’m in complete shock. I’m sorry I don’t even know what to say,” Glenn posted to Instagram on Thursday morning.

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

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.

With top U.S. men vying for a spot on the world team, expect explosive quads and emotional storytelling as they battle for supremacy. Free Dance: Always a crowd

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.

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.

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

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

A midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft. That was the word from authorities Thursday as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot after the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.

The figure skating community describes itself as "tight-knit," and members in the Kansas City area are feeling the impacts of the tragedy.

Olympic figure skating great and authoritative commentator Dick Button has died at age 95. Button's son, Edward, says he died Thursday and did not provide a cause.