Married 1994 World Figure Skating Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov Killed in American Airlines Crash

Mar. 15, 2025

Evegnia Shiskova and Vadim Naumov at the 1993 World Figure Skating Championships.Photo:Bongarts/Getty

Bongarts/Getty

Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the 1994 World Figure Skating champions in pairs representing Russia, were among the64 passengers killedaboard American Airlines 5342when it collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopterover Washington, D.C. Wednesday night, PEOPLE has confirmed.

Shishkova, 52 and Naumov, 55, were returning from coaching at a U.S. Figure Skating development camp for young skaters in Wichita, Kan. following last week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships, when they died in the crash on Wednesday, Jan. 29.

Maxim Naumov, the son of Evgenia Shiskova and Vadim Naumov.Ezra Shaw/Getty

Ezra Shaw/Getty

Evgenia and Vadim were both born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now called St. Petersburg, Russia). They were teamed up as a pair in 1985 and began competing in 1987.

The couple quickly rose up the ranks, winning the bronze medal at the 1991 European Figure Skating Championships. The following season, they competed at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, finishing fifth.

They won their first world medal, a bronze, at the 1993 World Figure Skating Championships, making them contenders at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lilehammer. They finished just off the podium in fourth, behind compatriots Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov and Natalia Mishkutionok and Artur Dmitriev.

With those two couples retiring after the Olympics, Shiskova and Naumov claimed the gold medal at the 1994 World Championships ahead of 1994 Olympic bronze medalists Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler.

Evgenia Shiskova and Vadim Naumov at the 1995 Champion Series Final in Paris.PIERRE VERDY/AFP via Getty

PIERRE VERDY/AFP via Getty

Shiskova and Naumov would win silver at the 1995 World Figure Skating Championships and the Champion Series (Grand Prix) Final title in 1996, their last major win. They retired in 1998 to coach and skate professionally. They wed in 1995 in St. Peterburg and moved to Simsbury, Conn. in 1998. Maxim was born in 2001.

The Skating Club of Boston confirmedseveral other members of the U.S. figure skating community were killed in the crash, including skater Spencer Lane, 16, and his mother Christine, and skater Jinna Han, 16, and her mother Jin.

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This isn’t the first time the community has faced tragedy. In 1961, the entire U.S. figure skating team was killed in a plane crash en route to the World Championships in Prague. The event was canceled.

source: people.com