The 2025 World Figure Skating Championships began on Wednesday, March 26, and will last until March 30. In the opening ceremony, an emotional tribute was paid to the victims of the plane crash in Washington DC on January 29, when an American Airlines crashed into a military helicopter, killing 67 people. Most of the passengers of the flight were figure skaters, most of them kids with their families and coaches, including two former World Champions, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Earlier this month, a gala celebration took place in Washington to raise money for the families. More than $1.2 million, and some relatives of the deceased performed, like 13-year-old Isabella Aparicio, who lost his father and brother, or Maxim Naumov, who lost his parents (AP via Turnto10).
The 2025 championships, held at Boston, opened with a video from the skaters accompanied by a choir. Doug Lane, who lost his wife and his son, said that his son Spencer had been training for that event. He also lamented that "while some accidents are unavoidable, this one was not", but "rather than looking for places to blame, I hope we can work with our elected officials to make air travel safer for everyone and for all of our families."
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The first day of the World Championships had American figure skater Alysa Liu stunning with the best score of her career, 74.58, hoping to improve the bronze she got three years ago. This is the most important figure skating competition before the Winter Olympics in 2026.