U.S. Skating Duo Honors Plane Crash Victims With World Championships Performance

In front of a Boston crowd that saw six locals perish in January's plane crash, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov turned in a stirring showing to keep Olympics dreams alive.

U.S. figure skaters Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov celebrate their performance at the TD Garden in Boston. / Erick W. Rasco / Sports Illustrated

It was not until the end of the performance of their lives, the one they had dedicated to those who died, that Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov remembered to take in the crowd. When they are skating, they try to focus on themselves and on one another. Efimova is so good at this that after the U.S. national championships, in January in Wichita, Kans., that she admitted to Mitrofanov that she had completely blocked out the fans. So on Thursday in Boston, as they finished a free skate that would eventually give them sixth place at the world championships, Mitrofanov grabbed his partner and spun her around. 

“He said, ‘Watch!’” said Efimova. “And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s a crowd!’”

They must have been the only people in TD Garden who didn’t hear them. The nearly full house roared every time the pair completed a jump or a lift, and they were on their feet before “Je Suis Malade” by Forestella finished. They shook American flags and rained dozens of stuffed animals onto the ice. Mitrofanov bellowed. Efimova beat his chest. 

“I have no words to explain what I’m feeling right now,” Efimova told the in-arena hosts as the pair headed to the kiss-and-cry area to await their score. “Thank you, TD Garden. Thank you, Boston.”

This event was always going to carry extra meaning for these two adopted Bostonians: Mitrofanov, 27, since he followed his coaches to the Skating Club of Boston from Texas in 2020, and Efimova, 25, since she joined Mitrofanov from Finland by way of Russia and Germany. Then, in January, an American Airlines passenger jet on its way from Wichita collided with an Army helicopter over Washington, D.C. Twenty-eight of the 67 people who died that day were leaving a development camp following the figure skating national championships: 11 athletes, four coaches and 13 parents. Six of them hailed from the Skating Club of Boston. 

In the days following the crash, the surviving club members struggled to commemorate their lost loved ones. They gathered at the rink in Norwood, Mass. They drew pictures and wrote letters to their friends. They hugged therapy dogs and spoke with grief counselors. And mostly, they skated. 

As the elite members returned to competition, they began bringing photos of the six crash victims from Boston with them: 13-year-old Jinna Han and her mom, Jin; 16-year-old Spencer Lane and his mom, Christine; and husband-and-wife coaching duo Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova. This week, Efimova and Mitrofanov did the same, holding the pictures in the kiss-and-cry while they awaited their scores. They wanted to do justice to the people they lost—and the people who remain. 

“We feel very happy to make everybody proud from the Skating Club of Boston and everybody who came to TD Garden today who was affected by the plane crash,” said Mitrofanov. “We wanted to dedicate the performance to everybody, and not just to us.” He added, “Probably half the crowd was from the Skating Club of Boston.”

They thought they were prepared for the emotions. But as they took the ice for their short program, on Wednesday, they found that it all overwhelmed them. On Thursday, they were able to channel that energy into their performance. 

“This is a memory I will now keep forever,” said Efimova. “It’s such a deep feeling right now here. It’s so warm.”

They wanted to make themselves proud, and to offer their city some comfort. In case that wasn’t enough, there was one more goal: to help give the U.S. a chance to qualify three pairs teams for the Milan Olympics. Their sixth-place finish, plus seventh by countrymen Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, meant they will get that opportunity at the final Olympic qualifying event, in Beijing in September. 

Efimova and Mitrofanov found out during their press availability that they had done it. They collapsed into one another, on the verge of tears. They knew they might not be chosen to be the two who filled that spot—that they might have punched someone else’s tickets to the Olympics. They didn’t care. 

“It’s bigger than us,” said Mitrofanov.

The whole night was.