Olympic gold medal winner Scott Hamilton The tears stopped on Friday when he remembered the victims of the figure skating community after a flight from the American Airlines who drove from the Development Camp in Kansas to Washington, collided with an army helicopter in the air in the middle of the air Late Wednesday evening.
The four -fold men’s mind champion spoke with great pleasure about the victims during an appearance Today But called the reality of this week’s tragedy ‘overwhelming’.
Figure Skater Scott Hamilton of the United States who participated in the figure skating competition in the XIV Winter Olympics around 1984 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. (Focus on sports/getty images)
“To make this happen just a few days after those championships were over, it is just devastating, shocking – it just doesn’t make sense … We are not stranger to tragedy, but this was just outside of destruction.”
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Officials have said that 14 skaters, coaches and relatives were on board at flight 5342 of the American Airlines when it collided at around 9 p.m. with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport, near DC , near Dc.
Many of the victims have been identified, including Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, The renowned skating coaches who together won a world championship title in 1994.
World champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov van Russia perform a throw during the couples short competition during the world figure skating competition in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on March 19, 1996. (Dave Buston/The Canadian Press Via AP, File)
Young figure skating sisters from Virginia killed among victims in DC aircraft accident
Hamilton became emotional When he spoke about the couple, who settled in America to become coaches after their successful career, who culminated in two Olympic performances. He saw them only a few days before the crash while attending the American figure skating championships in Kansas.
“I was actually sitting with them for a fun visit in Wichita,” Hamilton recalled on Friday. “
“To think that they have disappeared, I can’t wrap my head for the past 36 hours. It has just been devastating and the loss is just out of description. My heart is shattered.”
Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov of Russia perform during free skating in the pair event event of the NHK Trophy International Figure Skating Competition in Nagoya, Japan, on December 9, 1995. AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File
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Shishkova and Naumov married in 1995 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and they moved to Connecticut. They had a son, Maxim, who participated in men’s singles in the US that he was in Kansas, but did not travel back with his parents. The Russian couple were coaches for the Boston Skating Club.
Sixty passengers and four crew members on the plane of the American Airlines and three soldiers on board a training flight on the helicopter are supposed to be dead.
The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
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