Figure skating coaches who died in plane crash remembered in Connecticut: 'You will never be forgotten and forever loved'

Lori Riley, Hartford Courant on Feb 3, 2025

Published in News & Features

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SIMSBURY, Conn. — About 150 people gathered Monday afternoon at the International Skating Center of Connecticut for a national moment of silence for the figure skaters, coaches and families who were killed in the American Airlines plane crash last Wednesday night in Washington, D.C.

Two of the coaches who died, Russian Olympians Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, had skated as professionals and coached at the Simsbury ice rink from the time they moved to the U.S. in 1998 to 2017, when they moved to Boston to coach at the Skating Club of Boston.

Naumov and Shishkova were on their way home from Wichita, Kansas, where the U.S. Figure Skating Championships had taken place. They had stayed later for a training camp for younger skaters; their son Maxim, who finished fourth in the competition, had flown home earlier.

Hockey players, figure skaters and others who had known the couple filed somberly onto the ice rink Monday afternoon for the moment of silence at 3:35 p.m. Skating rinks around the state and country participated in honoring the 67 people who died in the crash, including 28 coaches, skaters and their family members.

Danielle D’Amours, who came from Massachusetts Monday, trained with Naumov and Shishkova for over a decade until she was 18 years old.

“When they moved to Boston, I would go to Boston and see them once a week,” said D’Amours, 22. “It’s been a little while. But I spent a lot of time with them. I spent my entire childhood with them. They watched me grow up. Every single day, hours a day.

“They were unbelievable. They were just such good people. They were so nice. They really cared about their students. They had so much passion. If you had the opportunity to know them, you were so lucky.”

There was a tribute to the couple in the lobby of the center, a table filled with flowers and notes and a video screen showing clips of the couple competing.

Naumov and Shishkova won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships and competed twice in the Olympics. They were married in 1995 and arrived in the U.S. in 1998 after growing up in Russia. Their son Maxim, who won the junior world title in 2020, was born in Hartford.

According to a 1998 article in The Courant, Naumov resisted switching partners when he was introduced to Shishkova in 1985. But after his pairs partner became ill, he skated with Shishkova and eventually the two became a team.

After they retired from competition, they began to coach. Naumov was the director of figure skating at the center from 2011-2016.

Naumov talked about his love for coaching on the Skating Club of Boston’s website: “I love to create an environment where students have fun while working hard. I also believe that helping and guiding athletes through their emotional challenges, ups and downs during training and competing, is a coach’s responsibility.”

Dawn Sadera-Harden was at the rink Monday with her son Paul Sadera, who had been coached by the couple, along with her other son John-Michael Harden, who is currently training in Indiana.

The two boys started training in Simsbury when they were 5 or 6 years old and continued until the couple moved to Boston.

“Genya (Shishkova) worked on the spins,” Sadera-Harden said. “Vadim worked on the jumps.

“There’s a very close relationship through the years with them. They grew up with their son Max. Max was their idol.”

There were many cards of condolence on the table in the lobby. One read: “With deepest love for the many years you gave to our children – like second parents to them at the ice rink – you will never be forgotten and forever loved.”

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