Washington DC crash: World champion Russian figure skaters confirmed on board doomed American Airlines flight
Washington DC crash: World champion Russian figure skaters confirmed on board doomed American Airlines flight
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The married couple had lived in the United States since at least 1998. Former world champion Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington on Wednesday night, the Kremlin and state media have confirmed.
![[Evgenia Shiskova and Vadim Naumov during the World Figure Skating Championships in Edmonton, Canada]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/30/10/22/FILES-SKATING-US-RUSSIA-ACCIDENT-hjoxs23z.jpeg)
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994. They had reportedly lived in the United States since at least 1998, where they trained young ice skaters. The couple were travelling back to DC on Flight 5342 after having attended a skating championship held in Wichita with a group of young skaters.
Russia's Mash news outlet published a list of 13 skaters, many of them the children of Russian emigres to the United States, who it said were believed to have been on the plane. Inna Volyanskaya, a former skater who competed for the Soviet Union, was also reported to have been on board, TASS said. She was a coach at the Washington figure skating club, according to its website.
Some Russian news agencies reported that Shishkova and Naumov's son Maxim Naumov, who competed for the United States, may have also been on the flight, but the Daily Mail quoted another competitor, Anton Spiridonov, as saying he had seen the younger Naumov fly out two days earlier.
