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E-mail Xinhua, January 31, 2025
Two teenage figure skaters, their mothers and two world champion coaches from Boston, Massachusetts, were among the 14 members of the skating community killed when an American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter Wednesday night and crashed into the frigid waters of the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.
Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said on Thursday that skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane were among those killed, along with 1994 pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. In all, 14 of the victims were coming back from a national development camp following the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas, Zeghibe said.
"Skating is a very close and tight-knit community. These kids and their parents, they're here at our facility in Norwood, six, sometimes seven days a week. It's a close, tight bond," Zeghibe was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying. "This will have long-reaching impacts for our skating community."
The Kremlin also confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov were aboard. They moved to the United States and became coaches, first at the International Skating Center in Connecticut and since 2017 at the Boston club that has served as a training ground for world-class skaters since 1912.
