In one of the world’s most shocking incidents, Flight 5342 crashed on January 29, leaving behind no survivors. The flight was minutes away from landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. The 8 ATC cooperated with other flights for a diversion. But as fate would have it, Flight 5342 crashed into a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter, better known as a Black Hawk. 67 passengers died, including the coaches of the Skating Club of Boston, and the Club did not fail to honor them. Well, figure skating duo Alisa Efimova & Misha Mitrofanov went from the club to the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2025.

NBC Olympics & Paralympics tweeted their interview after the performance, where Andrea Joyce pointed out that the two were crying after it was over.

Alisa said, “There is not much space for emotions right now. The focus we managed to get for the program was something very special, us together, and I’m very thankful for that moment and for Misha.” Of course, the pair is still shaken up after reliving the lost lives, but they are proud of the performance they put together.

Joyce reiterated that the pair had been preoccupied with their previous losses before competing. Misha answers that, citing, “For sure, they’re always in our minds, always in our hearts, and I really feel like they helped us today. ”

The pair was exceptional today and not just with their tribute. They scored a 135.59, their personal best of free skate.

Joyce asked about their opinions on their performance, to which Alisa once again said, “Hope I made everyone proud who has had heavy time during this time, and I hope that if the people who we lost were here, they would be proud.”

6th place finish for the famous figure skating duo!

Despite their personal best, the Boston pair finished at number 6 in the Pairs’ Final of the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships with 199.29 points.. They started the performance well with a triple twist lift that went up to level three without a hitch. It then evolved into the Salchow-double Axel-double Axel jump sequence. Things went well for the first two parts, but then Efimova spun and stepped out of the second Axel.

Next from them was the death spiral, which, much to their disappointment, had dropped a level to level three. There was a question over their triple toe, but the crowd was supportive enough to cheer it because they knew what had transpired on the ice rink.

After the performance, the pair hugged each other after making the audience teary-eyed as they gave them a standing ovation. Efimova collected a cuddly toy from the rink en route before leaving the ice.

The gold went to Japan’s figure skating duo Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi, now the two-time world champions. They removed the negatives for both their throw jumps and their jump sequence, which had a quarter under-rotation on the triple toe loop, and still scored 219.79 points.

The silver went to Germany’s European champions Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, who scored 219.08 points. So close, but yet so far, huh?