ANOTHER DARK DAY FOR FIGURE SKATING: TRAGEDY STRIKES AGAIN

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A Devastating Loss for the Skating Community

The world of fig­ure skat­ing is mourn­ing yet anoth­er heart­break­ing tragedy. An Amer­i­can Air­lines pas­sen­ger jet col­lid­ed midair with a Black Hawk mil­i­tary heli­copter near Wash­ing­ton, D.C., on the night of Jan­u­ary 29, 2025. Author­i­ties con­firmed that there were no sur­vivors. Among the vic­tims were sev­er­al mem­bers of the U.S. fig­ure skat­ing com­mu­ni­ty, includ­ing ath­letes, coach­es, and fam­i­ly mem­bers return­ing from the Nation­al Devel­op­ment Camp in Wichi­ta, Kansas.

Echoes of 1961: A Multigenerational Tragedy

This dev­as­tat­ing crash evokes painful mem­o­ries of the 1961 plane dis­as­ter that claimed the lives of the entire U.S. fig­ure skat­ing team en route to the World Cham­pi­onships in Prague. That tragedy left a last­ing void in the sport, and now his­to­ry has repeat­ed itself in the most painful way.

While the total num­ber of skaters lost in this lat­est crash has not been con­firmed, the Skat­ing Club of Boston has report­ed the deaths of sev­er­al of its mem­bers, includ­ing a mar­ried pair of for­mer world cham­pi­ons, two young ath­letes, and their moth­ers.

A Family of Champions Lost

Evge­nia Shishko­va and Vadim Nau­mov, the 1994 pairs world cham­pi­ons known for their charis­ma and artistry, were among those who per­ished. After immi­grat­ing to the U.S., they built suc­cess­ful coach­ing careers and played a piv­otal role in devel­op­ing young tal­ent. Their son, Max­im Nau­mov, a promis­ing U.S. men’s skater, had just placed fourth at the nation­al cham­pi­onships. The loss of his par­ents, who were also his long­time coach­es, has shak­en the skat­ing world.

Rafael Aru­tyun­yan, one of the sport’s most renowned coach­es, mourned their pass­ing. “They were incred­i­ble pro­fes­sion­als and won­der­ful peo­ple,” he said. “It’s hard to accept that they’re gone.” Out of respect, his skaters trained in silence the fol­low­ing day.

The Future Cut Short

Among the youngest vic­tims were 13-year-old Jin­na Han and 16-year-old Spencer Lane, two ris­ing stars in the sport. Jin­na had recent­ly passed U.S. Fig­ure Skating’s high­est-lev­el skills test, while Spencer had just won the East­ern Sec­tion­al inter­me­di­ate divi­sion title. Both had attend­ed the Nation­al Devel­op­ment Camp, where future Olympians are often iden­ti­fied. Their dreams, and those of their fam­i­lies, were shat­tered in an instant.

Before take­off, Spencer post­ed a final pho­to from inside the air­craft with the cap­tion “ICT -> DCA,” ref­er­enc­ing the flight path from Wichi­ta to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. That image now stands as a haunt­ing reminder of lives lost too soon.

A Community in Mourning

The grief has rever­ber­at­ed across the skat­ing world. Olympians Nan­cy Ker­ri­g­an and Dr. Ten­ley Albright vis­it­ed the Boston skat­ing rink to sup­port those affect­ed. Albright, who lost friends in the 1961 dis­as­ter, admit­ted, “I don’t know how to han­dle this.” Ker­ri­g­an, vis­i­bly emo­tion­al, expressed her sor­row: “It’s just unimag­in­able.”

This tragedy under­scores the unique bond with­in the fig­ure skat­ing com­mu­ni­ty, a fam­i­ly bound by shared dreams, relent­less dis­ci­pline, and now, unspeak­able loss.

As the sport grap­ples with yet anoth­er heart­break­ing chap­ter, one thing is cer­tain: these skaters, coach­es, and loved ones will nev­er be for­got­ten.