Figure skater Spencer Lane’s father, Douglas Lane, is remembering the 16-year-old following his death in the recent American Airlines crash.
“Whether he was in his home club in Boston, [Spencer] was just loved by everyone,” Douglas told local Rhode Island news outlet WPRI 12 on Thursday, January 30. “From adults running the club to smaller skaters, to the people that are competing for a shot at the Olympics, they all adored him.”
Douglas and his wife, Christine Lane, adopted sons Spencer and Milo from South Korea. In high school, Spencer found a passion for figure skating. He attended the U.S. Figure Skating team’s development camp in Wichita, Kansas, earlier this month. Christine accompanied Spencer to the program before they both died in the Wednesday, January 29, plane crash.
“About four years ago, Spencer saw Nathan Chen in the Olympics and decided, ‘Hey, I could do that,’ even though people train since they’re a small child and [it] takes them years and years to get skills,” Douglas tearfully recalled. “He started and learned to skate and three years later, he’s in Wichita, Kansas on the National Development Team with U.S. Figure Skating training with former world champions. He was just a phenom and just loved it.”
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According to Douglas, his eldest son had “natural talent” but still “worked every day” to improve his skills on the ice. Spencer was a member of the Skating Club of Boston, which had five other students on the American Airlines flight. (The commercial aircraft collided with a military helicopter and crash-landed in the Potomac River. There are no presumed survivors.)
“He went up to Boston every day, did high school online and was just all-in on figure skating and was great at it,” Douglas said. “His coaches were also on the flight with him. [They] were wonderful world champions from Russia and some other skaters. It’s just devastating.”
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Spencer was one of Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov’s students. The married couple previously competed at the 1994 Olympics against Nancy Kerrigan, who visited the Skating Club of Boston on Thursday to pay her respects.
“I’ve seen [Evgenia and Vadim] a lot of times over the years, but everything I’ve heard of them was maybe they’re a little tough, but with a smile on their faces,” Kerrigan, 55, recalled in a press conference. “Any time I walked [into a room], it was, ‘Oh, hi, it’s so good to see you,’ and [they were] welcoming and happy to see one another. To walk into here and not see that, I think would be very strange for anyone that comes here day in and day out.”
