U.S. figure skating pair dedicates Olympic performance to Florida shooting victims

Yesterday, in the deadliest shooting since Sandy Hook, a 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, opened fire with an AR-15, killing at least 17 people and injuring 15, according to Huffington Post.

The accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, is being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

While the Parkland community and the rest of the nation was in disarray, news traveled overseas to Americans participating in the PyeongChang Games.

Figure skating duo Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and husband Chris Knierim dedicated their long program at the pair skating finals to the victims of the Parkland mass shooting.

“May the hearts of those who are mourning the loss of victims in the shooting today be lifted up,” Scimeca-Knierim tweeted that day. “You are on my mind and on my heart. God bless you all.”

May the hearts of those who are mourning the loss of victims in the shooting today be lifted up. You are on my mind and on my heart. God bless you all.

— Alexa ScimecaKnierim (@alexa_knierim) February 15, 2018

“We are so privileged and lucky to be doing what we are doing, and it’s so sad that 17 people died in the United States,” Scimeca-Knierim said after their performance, according to the Associated Press. “I told Chris today he’d need to be so much stronger than me.”

“We wanted to skate for the 17 children that died in the Florida shooting,” she continued. “And today was much more than about us.”

According to reports, the victims were a mixture of students and adults, including a football coach and a female attending the school.

During their performance (which you can watch here) husband and wife became the first U.S. pair to do a quad twist at an Olympic Games.

THERE IT IS. @alexa_knierim and @ChrisKnierim become the first U.S. pair to do a QUAD TWIST at the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/DZAPRc3VGz

— U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) February 15, 2018

They received bronze medals in the team figure skating event earlier this week, but their go at a title in the pairs final wasn’t fulfilled. They scored 185.82 overall and finished off the podium in 15^th place.

“I am disappointed with the way we performed today, but so many people at home are hurting because their children have died,” Scimeca-Knierim said.

“Unfortunately, we had a lot of mistakes,” she also said during a post-performance interview with NBC Sports, “but I think our motivation was to skate for those who were lost.”