Figure Skating In Shock As Athletes, Coaches Perish In US Crash

Published 3 months ago• 4 minute read

Russian pairs figure skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova perform during the pairs Short Program during the World Figure Skating Championships in Edmonton, Canada on March 19, 1996. Naumov and Shishkova are in second place in the Pairs category. Russian figure skating couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title, were on board a US passenger jet that crashed in Washington on January 29, 2025, Russian news agencies reported. The state TASS and RIA news agencies, both citing a source, reported on Thursday the pair were on board the crashed plane. (Photo by Jeff HAYNES / AFP)

This photo taken on February 24, 1996 shows Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov performing at the Pairs event at the Figure Skating Championship finals in Paris. (Photo by Pierre VERDY / AFP)

US Figure Skating, in a statement, confirmed only that “several members of our skating community” were on the plane.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts.”

Zeghibe said Boston skaters Jinna Han, 13, and Spencer Lane, 16, their mothers and Naumov and Shishkova were aboard the plane that crashed into the icy Potomac.

“I’ve never seen anyone love skating as much as these two and that’s why I think it hurts so much,” Kerrigan said of Han and Lane.

“The kids care. They work really hard to be here… it’s just such a tragic event.”

It also could mean a lost generation of champion talent.

Four-time US champion Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic men’s champion, called the deaths “a huge loss for the sport” and added, “Any time there’s a loss of these talented people like Spencer and Jinna… it really affects all of us. We’re mourning their loss and we still have more people to find out about.”

US Olympic and Paralympic Committee chief executive Sarah Hirshland said the US victims “represented the bright future of Team USA.”

Naumov and Shishkova, who coached in Boston since 2017, will be missed, Boitano said.

“They were people producing champions of our future,” he said.

Part of the wreckage is seen as rescue boats search the waters of the Potomac River after a plane on approach to Reagan National Airport crashed into the river outside Washington, DC, on January 30, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Part of the wreckage is seen as rescue crews search the waters of the Potomac River after a passenger plane on approach to Reagan National Airport crashed into the river after colliding with a US Army helicopter, near Washington, DC, on January 30, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Congressman Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia posted on social media that among those killed was Russian skating coach Inna Volyanskaya.

Alexandr Kirsanov, another Russian coach, was on the plane, according to his wife Natalya Gudin, who told ABC News she has “lost everything.”

The Philadelphia Skating Club said “beloved members” died in the crash and University of Delaware president Dennis Assanis said two young skaters from UD’s Skating Club were believed to have been on the doomed flight.

The accident revived memories of a February 1961 tragedy involving the US figure skating squad, half of which were Boston club members according to Zeghibe.

The entire 18-member team bound for the world championships in Prague was killed when their plane crashed as it prepared to land in Brussels.

Naumov and Shishkova have a 23-year-old son, Maxim Naumov, who won the 2020 US junior men’s title and placed fourth at last week’s US nationals. Zeghibe said Maxim Naumov was not aboard the plane.

International Skating Union president Kim Jae-youl said “the world of figure skating is heartbroken,” adding: “To lose so many members of our community in this way brings sadness beyond words.”

A moment of silence was observed Thursday at the European Figure Skating Championships in Estonia.