Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov broke the mold of serious, stoic Russian pair teams and won legions of fans worldwide. Their cheerful, tongue-in-cheek performance that seemed to poke fun at classical, stuffy routines led to their 1994 world title.
Like many top Russian skaters in the 1990s, Shishkova and Naumov moved to the US and became coaches. The couple is survived by a son, 23-year-old Maxim Naumov, a US men’s figure skater who just earned fourth place at the national championships on Sunday.
Shishkova, Naumov, and their son represented the Skating Club of Boston, which also lost several other members in the crash.
The tragedy will have a profound impact on the world figure skating championships in March, which will take place in Boston.
A longtime friend of the couple, renowned figure skating coach Rafael Arutyunyan, said Shishkova and Naumov were “very good professionals and very good people.”
“I cannot believe they don’t exist in this world anymore,” he told CNN. “All of our community was respectful to them and liked them, so I feel they’ll stay with us forever.”
Arutyunyan’s skaters practiced in silence on Thursday as a tribute to the victims.
After the 1961 crash, it became common for teams to not travel together, said Arutyunyan, who’s coached Olympic medalists Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, and Nathan Chen.
He said he hopes athletes and coaches will travel less. “We are responsible for our kids,” Arutyunyan said.
