Figure skating legend Oksana Baiul says D.C. crash victims will be ‘missed dearly’

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Olympic gold medalist Oksana Baiul said she was stunned to learn of the mid-air collision between a passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

Baiul said when the names started being released, she realized she knew Alexander Kirsanov, Vadim Naumov, and Egvenia Shishkov, who were on the plane. Baiul calls the skating world a tight-knit family. Naumov and Shishkov were skaters in Connecticut who later became coaches, and although they never competed, Baiul said she had known them since 1994.

She said, “We are a big skating family, and sometimes people have to understand when you’re getting ready and you are at the national level or Olympic level or any level, it takes so much dedication and so much work and these people, I mean they are going to be missed, dearly.”

Many of the young skaters were attending a national development camp in Witchita. Baiul, “They do these camps for juniors and for seniors. Juniors, basically that’s the people that are 12, 13 years old. They are testing skaters. You know a lot of people come into this camp and they do tests.”

She said it’s a big loss to the skating community but her heart goes out to everyone who was on the plane.

WVLA/WGMB in Baton Rouge contributed to this story.