U.S. Figure Skating is no stranger to trauma and loss. In 1961, the U.S. team, including skaters, officials, and coaches, perished en route to the World Figure Skating Championships in Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) in the crash of Sabena Flight 548. It took U.S. skating years to rebound. Part of the return to the world podium was thanks to international coaches John Nicks and the late Carlo Fassi moving to the United States.
In memory of those lost in 1961, U.S. Figure Skating launched the Memorial Fund, which has provided funding to countless skaters over the past 63 years. Tragically, the fund will now honor the memories of skaters, parents, and coaches who died last Wednesday night.
On Thursday, the U.S. Figure Skating posted the following on its website: “U.S. Figure Skating can confirm that several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which collided with a helicopter on Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. These athletes, coaches and family members were returning home for the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.”
Related: Atoy Wilson inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame
“Yesterday, we, the skating community, lost friends, colleagues, students, parents, siblings, children and coaches,” wrote former skater Amber Corwin Farrow on Facebook. “I had the pleasure of working with all of them over the last few days. Your joyous, smiling, passionate faces will never be forgotten.”
The Skating Club of Boston was particularly hard hit by that 1961 airline crash because many of the skaters on the World team were affiliated with the club. That club again felt the pain of loss on Jan. 29. Among the deceased were young skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane; their mothers Jin Han and Christine Lane; and two coaches from the club, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, a married couple who immigrated to the U.S. from Russia at the conclusion of their competitive career in the late 1990s.
Shishkova and Naumov’s son, Maxim, whom they coached, finished fourth in the senior men’s at the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and is scheduled to represent the U.S. at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Seoul, South Korea, at the end of February. He was not with his parents on the fatal flight, having headed home to Boston on Monday.
“Our sport and this club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” wrote Doug Zeghibe, CEO and executive director of Skating of Boston. “Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together 6 or 7 days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family.”
Skaters, coaches, and parents from Northern Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Delaware were also aboard Flight 5342.
As someone who has covered the sport of figure skating for more than 30 years, I am aware of the pain and anguish that the skating community is experiencing. Young skaters, some of whom lost friends, are struggling to process this profound loss. Condolences have come in from all over the world.
These were young skaters at the very beginning of their competitive careers. One bereaved father described the Youth Development Camp as his daughter’s goal fulfilled. Now, future generations will carry their memory and honor them through their performances.