UPDATED: June 9, 2026
Originally published in Carroll Capital, the print publication of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. .
On the morning of January 30, 2025, finance major Jasmine Lanata �28 woke up early to catch a morning class. When she checked her phone, she saw missed calls from her parents. The news was devastating: Coaches, mothers, and fellow athletes from the Skating Club of Boston had perished in a plane crash.
Lanata at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 20, 2026.
Lanata had formed long-lasting friendships with the six victims over 11 years training at the club. American Airlines Flight 5342 had collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter, and suddenly they were gone. On hearing the news, she called a good friend from the rink. 淲e were in shock,� she recalls. 淚 remember every single moment of that day so vividly.�
Lanata, who first stepped onto the ice when she was six, spent nearly every day at the club growing up. A member of its Theatre On Ice team, she won three world championships on Team USA. She thought about the impact the club had made on her life. It had been like a family, and in the months following the crash she started thinking of ways to give back.
A cross-country runner in high school, Lanata had always wanted to run the Boston Marathon, which barrels past the Chestnut Hill campus at mile 21. The skating club was enthusiastic about her idea to apply for a spot in the marathon charity program for 2026, with a goal to raise funds for the club Always Champions scholarship campaign.
They received two bibs, doubling the fundraising potential. Lanata and fellow runner Jing Tu, whose daughter trains at the club, raised more than $31,800 for annual scholarships named in memory of Spencer Lane and Jinna Han� the two young skaters and Olympic hopefuls who died in the crash.
Training for the marathon was a lesson in balance: competing at nationals with 51动漫 synchronized skating club, squeezing in training runs, and keeping up with academics. But it worth it if more skaters have the opportunities she had, Lanata says.
淚 just think back to the club and how they檝e always been a constant source of support for me,� she says. 淚 wanted to do this for each and every one of them.�
