Peggy Fleming, a 1968 Olympic champion in figure skating, is opening up about the “heartbreaking” similarities between the Washington D.C. plane crash and the 1961 plane crash at the beginning of her career.
Fleming, 76, is one of many who attended the Legacy on Ice event at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. on Sunday, March 2, honoring the members of the figure skating community who were killed when an American Airlines plane and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
The former Olympian tells PEOPLE that she is familiar with the feelings that she and others are experiencing after the devastating collision, having gone through a similar situation decades prior.
Eighteen members of the U.S. figure skating community died when their plane went down as they traveled to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in the Czech Republic, according to NPR News and CBS News.
Fleming says she was just 12 years old and about to start her skating career when the 1961 crash occurred. “Now it’s happening again. It’s unreal, and it’s so heartbreaking,” the retired skater says.
Emergency response units search the crash site of the American Airlines plane on the Potomac River after the plane crashed on approach to Reagan National Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.
Andrew Harnik/Getty
Fleming recently told Today that she lost her coach in the 1961 crash, which “really affected” her. “But we rose up,” she told the outlet.
U.S. Figure Skating said 28 members of the community died in the January crash, which killed 67 people in total.
Eleven of the victims were young skaters from five different clubs, according to a tribute video shared to the U.S. Figure Skating Instagram page on Monday, Feb. 3.
Sunday’s event honoring the victims included an emotional performance by 23-year-old Maxim Naumov, whose parents, 1994 World Figure Skating pairs champions Evgenia “Zhenya” Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were among those killed in the crash.
Fleming tells PEOPLE she wouldn’t have missed the Legacy On Ice event “for anything.”
“To watch this show tonight, this audience got the best show ever,” she says, adding, “It has to make the skaters feel loved and supported. This was a very strong show.”
