The two Russian figure skating coaches killed in the American Airlines crash were two-time Olympians and former world champions in the pairs event. They were also a married couple with a son who finished fourth last week at the U. Their son was not on the same flight. Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov won a world championship title together in pairs skating in and narrowly missed out on Olympic medals that year at the Lillehammer Games before moving to the U. After their son Maxim Naumov skated at the national championships, the year-old Shishkova and her year-old husband stayed in Wichita for a development camp for some of the most promising young skaters in the country.
On Wednesday night, the American Airlines jet they were on collided with an Army helicopter near Washington and crashed into the frigid waters of the Potomac River. There were 60 passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines flight and three soldiers aboard the Blackhawk helicopter.
The hope of rescuing any survivors evaporated by daybreak. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Thursday morning that the pair had been on board the plane, and the Skating Club of Boston, where they coached, said Shishkova and Naumov had been killed. Two teenage figure skaters and their mothers who were affiliated with the Boston club were also on the flight.
Lyudmila Velikova, the former coach of Shishkova and Naumov, told Russian state news agency Tass she had been in touch with Shishkova and Naumov regularly and that they had spoken shortly before last week's event in Kansas. They traveled to the main competitions in America and they had very good, worthy students," Velikova said.
Shishkova and Naumov started skating together in the s in the Soviet Union and were two-time Olympians, but the peak of their career came in when they won a world championship gold medal together in Chiba, Japan. It was just over a month after they had narrowly missed out on medals at the Lillehammer Olympics. Shishkova and Naumov were among many Russian skaters who sought a new life as coaches in the U. Their profiles on the Skating Club of Boston website stated that each had qualified as sports instructors in St.
