BOSTON — Michael Parsons had an early breakfast Tuesday morning and then stepped onto a bus for the short commute from his hotel to TD Garden, home of the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships. He grabbed a seat by a window, and then Amber Glenn settled into the seat to his right. The longtime friends — Parsons a champion ice dancer with partner Caroline Green, and Glenn recently crowned United States women’s champion for the second year in a row — naturally started talking about the exciting week ahead.

And yet the conversation had a measure of sadness to it. How could it not? This year’s competition, which begins Wednesday afternoon, will also serve as a week-long remembrance of the 28 members of the figure skating community who were killed in January when American Airlines Flight 5342 out of Wichita, Kan., collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington D.C. Six of the victims had ties to The Skating Club of Boston, which is hosting the world championships.

Wichita, Kan., had hosted the United States Figure Skating Championships, as well as various development programs that took place after the competition. In the figure skating community, practically everybody knew somebody who had been there. The painful memories of what happened over the Potomac are being revisited in Boston this week. It’s unavoidable.

“Amber and I were talking about the mental approach we want to take as we compete this week, as well as the best way to honor those who died,” said Parsons, 29. “I was looking out the window, at Boston, and I was thinking that it’s been a long time since I’ve been in this city. I have a lot of family coming, I have a lot of family that have lived here. So just thinking about that, and remembering that (one night before the plane collision) my own family was on that flight coming back from Wichita, it brings everything back. It brings back so many emotions. Every athlete coming into this competition has the tragedy on their minds.”

Earlier this month, a who’s who of figure skating legends gathered at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., for a “Legacy on Ice” to support the families and loved ones that were affected by the collision. “It was the most beautiful tribute we could have imagined,” said American ice dancer Evan Bates, 36, who will compete in the worlds with partner/wife Madison Chock. “I can’t even put into words how incredible it was.”

The World Figure Skating Championships will memorialize victims of the crash with a ceremony Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. at TD Garden. Before and after, the challenge facing the skaters — men and women from the United States and beyond — will be to hold tight to a steely-eyed competitive drive while also opening up their hearts to remember those lost in the crash.

Bates may have found it difficult to put the magnificence of “Legacy on Ice” into words, but Chock found the words to describe how an athlete can stay the course at a time when competitiveness and mourning are coursing through the veins all at once. “Our goal,” Chock said, “is to spread love through all the joy we get from skating.”

Hopefully, said Bates, “… this will be a cathartic experience for the people who have been struggling lately. I know as a community we’ve all been struggling.”

The figure skating community has thrown itself into this event. TD Garden was buzzing with activity Tuesday afternoon, with workers assembling camera platforms, skaters practicing their programs and harried officials running in every direction. A similar scene was playing out at the Steriti Memorial Rink on Commercial Street in Boston’s North End, about a 10-minute walk from TD Garden. The Steriti, being used as a practice facility, was visited by figure skating royalty Tuesday afternoon as Boston native Tenley Albright, 89, a 1956 Olympic champion, took a seat to watch the skaters loosen up.

One of those skaters was 6-foot-5 Italian Nikolaj Memola, 21, who was working on his short program.

“I was in Estonia for the European championships when I heard what happened in Washington,” Memola said. “It was really hard because we were there, enjoying our moment, and as we were getting the news, we weren’t sure what had happened. And then I started reading all the names on Instagram. There was a really dark aura in the building there.

“I have a lot of friends at The Skating Club of Boston, Now I’m in Boston, and I know everyone is trying to enjoy this event. But the topic is still fresh. Everyone here had some kind of relationship with the victims.”

American Andrew Torgashev, 23, used the Steriti ice to work on his long program and get his legs back under him following a flight from California. Asked how he’s working to handle the tricky intersection of competition and remembrance, he said, “The sport is the sport. It requires your focus and it requires your whole.”

But, he said, “I’m grateful to be alive and healthy and experience that, but it’s so tragic (the victims) will never have that opportunity. So out of respect to them, you have to come in here and give it your all.”