Global figure skating’s tight-knit community was in mourning on Thursday after a passenger jet crash in Washington killed two former world champion coaches and young stars from the next generation of top US talent.
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Former Russian world pairs champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov and as many as 14 young American skaters perished when a plane collided mid-air with a US Army helicopter on Wednesday night above the US capital.
American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, plunged into the Potomac River, with President Donald Trump announcing Thursday there were no survivors.
Among those grief-stricken was Nancy Kerrigan, a former US women’s champion and two-time Olympic and world medallist based in Boston, where the World Figure Skating Championships will be held in March.
“Not sure how to process it,” she said, breaking down in tears. “When you find out you know some of the people on the plane, it’s an even bigger blow.”
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Reigning world and US men’s champion Ilia Malinin called it a “loss beyond words”.