On a winter day in 1961, a catastrophic plane crash in Belgium claimed the lives of the entire U.S. figure skating team, casting a shadow over the world of sports. As the nation mourned the loss of the 18 athletes, coaches, officials, family members and other passengers and crew, the incident left a lasting impact on the skating community.
Background and the Crash
Just weeks before the crash, the U.S. figure skating team roster was finalized at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs. On February 14, 1961, the team departed from Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in New York on Sabena Flight 548, a Boeing 707 headed to Prague for the World Championships, with a layover in Brussels.
Passengers included coach and nine-time American champion and Olympic bronze medalist Maribel Vinson-Owen, 49, and her 16-year-old daughter, U.S. national champion Laurence Owen, featured on that week’s cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline “America’s most exciting girl skater.” Also among the team on board were her older sister, Maribel Jr., 20, and Dudley Richards, 29, the national pairs champions; U.S. men’s champion Bradley Lord, 21; 1961 U.S. silver medalists Gregory Kelley, 16, and Stephanie Westerfeld, 17; and U.S. ice dancing champions Diane Sherbloom, 18, and Larry Pierce, 24.
According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the plane’s landing was aborted twice on the morning of February 15. “On its third circle, the aircraft lost speed, its nose plunging down, and it spiraled into the ground at 10:05 a.m. about 2 miles from the airport,” the newspaper reported.
All 72 passengers and a farmer on the ground died when the plane crashed into a field in Berg-Kamenhout, Belgium, near Brussels. While the exact cause of the crash remains unknown, according to Time, investigators have suggested faulty jet stabilizers.
Impact on U.S. Figure Skating
The disaster, the worst involving an American sports team until a 1970 plane crash that killed all 75 passengers, including 38 Marshall University football players, devastated the figure skating community and the nation.
“This is a terrible blow,” Carl W. Gram Jr., U.S. Figure Skating Association secretary, said following the crash. “These were the finest skaters in the country—the best three in every division. They represented years of hard work and practice. Now we will have to start from the beginning—with our juniors and kids. It’s a long road back.”
President John F. Kennedy expressed his condolences in a statement: “Our country has sustained a great loss of talent and grace which had brought pleasure to people all over the world.”
The next day, the International Skating Union canceled the Prague championships as “a sign of mourning,” according to The New York Times, overruling the Czech organizing committee that wished to continue with the competition.
Matthew Andrews, a history professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and host of the podcast “American Sport with Matt Andrews,” notes that the youthfulness of the victims intensified the tragedy, but that it also brought a level of political significance to the loss.
“Not only was there the shock of the entire national figure skating program being wiped out, but these were more than just athletes,” he says. “This was the era of the Cold War, when sports battles in places like the Winter Olympics were politically meaningful. The Soviets were pulling ahead of the Americans, certainly in the Winter Games, and now these ‘Cold Warrior’ hopes for the United States were gone.”
In the aftermath of the crash, Andrews says, 12-year-olds were suddenly the nation’s top-rated figure skaters.
“The U.S. did not do well in Innsbruck 1964—though 14-year-old Scott Allen took the bronze medal in the men's skating competition in those Olympics,” he says.
But by 1968, Andrews points out, the U.S. program was back, with Peggy Fleming winning gold for the U.S. in Grenoble. "With an entire generation of skaters killed in the crash, Fleming was one of the skaters upon whom attention and expectations were heaped," Andrews says. Tragically, Fleming's coach, Billy Kipp, had also been killed in the crash.
According to ESPN, U.S. Figure Skating ordered that no teams were to travel together to international competitions by air again.
Legacy and Remembrance
In honor of the victims, the U.S. Figure Skating Association established a memorial fund soon after the tragedy that has provided more than $20 million to thousands of young skaters, including Fleming, Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi and Adam Rippon.
Additionally, a marble skate-shaped bench at the Broadmoor Skating Club in Colorado Springs serves as a memorial to the eight members of the club who died in the crash, and a 2001 monument at the crash site in Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium, was updated in 2021 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the tragedy.
In 2011, the day before the 50th anniversary of the crash, the 18 team members of the 1961 national team, along with the coaches, officials and family members who died on the Sabena flight, were inducted into the U.S. Skating Hall of Fame.
“These athletes, coaches, parents…never got to experience that [Olympic] dream come true, but they were a springboard for everyone that came after them,” 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton said in a 2011 documentary commemorating the crash’s 50th anniversary.
“I wouldn’t skate in the Olympic Games in 1980 or 1984 without the memorial fund. My dream would not have come true. They made it possible. So all of us that came after represent their promise and their dream.”
