Evgenia Shishkova

Evgenia Vasilievna Shishkova (; 18 December 1972 – 29 January 2025) was a Russian figure skating coach and competitor. With her husband Vadim Naumov, she was the 1994 world champion and the 1995–96 Champions Series Final champion.

Shishkova died on 29 January 2025, when American Eagle Flight 5342 collided with an U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter while the jet was on approach to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Career

Shishkova and Naumov were introduced in 1985 by Naumov's coach who wanted them to skate together. Naumov initially rebuffed the idea because he did not wish to change partners; however after several tryouts, he and Shishkova agreed to be a team. They landed a throw triple jump during their first training and began competing together in 1987.

In 1991 Shishkova/Naumov won the Soviet National Championships and captured bronze at their first European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, then placed 5th at the World Championships in Munich, Germany. During the next season, they competed at their first Olympics, the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, placing fifth. Shishkova/Naumov won their first World Championships' medal–bronze–at the 1993 World Championships. The pair placed 4th at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. They just missed out on Olympic bronze, with 4 judges out of 5 placing them 3rd ahead of eventual bronze medal winners, the Canadians Brasseur & Eisler. People in the public whistled when the marks appeared on the jumbotron. The pair ended the season by becoming world champions in Chiba, Japan east of Tokyo on 23rd March 1994.

Shishkova/Naumov won their third World Championships' medal, which was silver at the 1995 World Championships in Birmingham, England. Despite skating a clean free program, they lost to a flawed free skate by the eventual winners Kovarikova & Novotny.
From 1991 to 1995, the pair also won five European Championships medals. In February 1996, they won gold at the 1995–96 Champions Series Final (later renamed the Grand Prix Final) in Paris. At the 1996 World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Shishkova/Naumov were third after the short program. In the long program, four judges gave first-place votes to Marina Eltsova / Andrei Bushkov who finished as gold medalists. Four judges voted in favor of Shishkova/Naumov, however, low scores from the other five judges left them off the podium in 4th place.

Shishkova/Naumov missed most of the 1996/97 season following Naumov's collar bone injury that he suffered in the summer and early fall of 1996. They did not make the 1998 Winter Olympic team for Russia as they placed 4th at Russian Nationals' in December 1997. They decided to retire from ISU competition in 1998 and skate and turn professional. The pair won the World Professional Championships in Jaca, Spain, in April 1998. After skating professionally for about a year and a half, they transitioned into coaching, working at the International Skating Center in Simsbury, Connecticut northwest of Hartford. They moved and became coaches at the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts west of Quincy, in February 2017.

Personal life and death

Shishkova and Naumov married in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 7 August 1995. They settled in Simsbury in 1998. Their son, Maxim Naumov, was born in August 2001 and competes in men's singles for the United States.

On 29 January 2025, Naumov and Shishkova both died on American Eagle Flight 5342 that collided with an U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter while the jet was on approach to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. They were returning from Wichita, Kansas, where they participated in a development camp for young skaters, days following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The Skating Club of Boston, where the couple coached, lost six skaters in the crash. Their son, Maxim, who had competed at the U.S. Championships, was not onboard the plane, having flown out of Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport two days before the crash took place. On March 2, 2025, U.S. Figure Skating held an ice show called Legacy on Ice, which paid tribute to Shishkova and the other victims that lost their lives aboard American Eagle Flight 5342. Maxim performed to Shishkova and Naumov's favorite song, "Город, которого нет (The City That Doesn't Exist)" by Igor Kornelyuk, to honor his parents.

Programs

Competitive highlights

''GP: Champions Series (Grand Prix)''

With Naumov:
* Soviet Union (URS): Start of career through December 1991
* Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): 1992 European and World Championships
* Unified Team at the Olympics (EUN): 1992 Olympics
* Russia (RUS): 1992–93 to end of career

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shishkova, Evgenia
1972 births
2025 deaths
Russian female pair skaters
Olympic figure skaters for the Unified Team
Olympic figure skaters for Russia
Figure skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics
Figure skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics
Figure skaters from Saint Petersburg
World Figure Skating Championships medalists
European Figure Skating Championships medalists
Goodwill Games medalists in figure skating
Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games
Russian expatriates in the United States
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2025
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Washington, D.C.
Victims of mid-air collisions