(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Friends and fellow competitors from Chicago’s figure skating community are mourning the loss of those who died in the D.C. plane crash.
Several local athletes competed in the same event in Kansas as those who were killed. Including Lorenzo Elano of Chicago, who won the U.S. Junior Men’s National Championship. He told CBS News Chicago that memory now will be mixed with tragedy.
"It's just really sad. They all have so much potential at becoming an Olympian, and it's so sad that it had to get cut short," Elano said. He lost four friends.
Skaters practicing in Buffalo Grove had just competed in Wichita for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with some of those killed, including Jinna Han and Spencer Lane. Jiaying Ellyse Johnson of North Barrington was supposed to see both again next week. She described her friends to CBS News Chicago.
“Her smile was so contagious, and just like, she would light up any room that she was in," Johnson said. "And Spencer, he had this very beautiful voice, and like, I just wish that I could, like, hear it again."
Twin Rinks says while the skating community is fiercely competitive, they truly are family off the ice.
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