BOSTON, Mass. - The 2025 World Figure Skating Championships are underway in Boston just weeks after the local figure skating community suffered a tragic loss when 67 people, including six members of the Skating Club of Boston, died in a mid-air collision over the Potomac River.

The International Skating Union began the five-day event Wednesday with a remembrance ceremony for those who died, and figure skating fans are also mourning the loss.

“It’s just awful, our hearts went out,” said Burt Levin. “We saw so much young potential, and it’s extremely sad.”

Levin traveled from Colorado to attend the World Championships, and he was one of hundreds of people waiting in line outside the TD Garden to witness the world’s best skaters in action.

“The courage that it takes for these guys to do what they do, the amount of jumping, it’s so athletic but it’s also so beautiful,” Levin said. “I mean, this is a special trip for us. We don’t go to competitions, so to be here in person is special.”

The figure skaters, parents and coaches who died in the crash were returning from a U.S. Figure Skating development camp in Wichita, Kansas.

The six members of the Skating Club of Boston who died included rising talents Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, their mothers Jin Hee Han and Christine Lane, and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

“I know the figure skating community is a very tight-knit community, and they were such young figure skaters,” said Kennedy Patrick. “I think the emotions will be really reflected in the performances.”

“It was really sad, I have some connections to the Skating Club of Boston because one of my coaches originated from there when I was younger,” said Cheryl Kayan.

Kayan, a former figure skater, remembers Shishkova and Naumov from their earlier careers, when the two were 1994 world pairs champions.

“I remember watching them as a younger child and saying ‘Oh, they’re so good’, and knowing they were coaching in Boston and realizing what was lost with the talent that never had a chance,” Kayan said.

As the competition’s busy five-day schedule gets underway, these fans will remember the lives lost in this tragedy while finding comfort in their common love for figure skating.

“I was at practices yesterday and everybody was just really happy to be here, and a really knowledgable crowd,” Kayan said.

“There is a ton of people, and a lot of people that I didn’t expect to see here,” Patrick said. “I’ve been a big figure skating fan for 15 years now, but it’s just an energy that I didn’t expect.”