EVery One agreed that it was the best camp to which they had never been. The most fun. There was an interpretative dance class. The successful jump exercises were welcomed with high-fives all around. On Chinese New Year Day, the children all went out for hot pot. And parents and coaches, regardless of the rivalries of the athletes, intertwined in the camaraderie; When a parent noticed that the voice of a trainer got up, he pulled a ginger shot from his handbag, tending him with a smile.
The national development camps, such as the one that took place following the American craft skating championships in Wichita last week, take place for the most efficient, intermediate and novice skaters. Young athletes with the greatest potential are offered this chance to look at the stars of their sport compete, then learn from some of the country’s most elite coaches.
“They just made the environment really, really special,” said Anne Goldberg-Baldwin, coach and technical specialist in competitive judgment panels, who was present at the camp. His student, Spencer Lane, was on the American Eagle Flight 5342 who crashed Wednesday evening following a collision with a Black Hawk helicopter. With him, several other skaters on the camp, their coaches and their parents, and the loss has torn a hole in the artistic skating community.
“These are the youngest and most brilliant stars in the country. They were the next generation, “said Melissa Gregory, a dancer and coach of American ice. “We are all such a tight family, and it hurts, and I think we will all really feel this pain and this loss for a long time.”
Gregory, with her husband and skating partner, Dennis Petukhov, had been particularly close friends with Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the 1994 world champions and the two times of the Olympians, who were also on the aircraft of Wichita . Petukhov had known the couple since the 1990s, causing and leading together in Russia, before everyone went to the United States. They had made shows together, exchanged coaching advice and helped the students of the other. Their life has become closely linked while the two couples built their skating schools in Connecticut.
“It is difficult to understand that these high -level professionals, I would say that the top of the top can disappear. These are the type of people who are models – you could admire everything about them, ”said Petukhov.
Shishkova and Naumov used to bring in young talented coaches under their wing, engaging them as choreographers and team members. In a sport where it is not uncommon for coaches to dirty their students and train rivalries, they did the opposite.
“I appreciated every second by working with them,” said choreographer Adam Blake. “We were an excellent collaborative partnership. We trusted ourselves, and we listened to and we were. But I loved that we were more than working partners. We were friends.
He described Shishkova as someone who, if someone had a problem, would go directly into “mom mode”. And it is his role not only as an accomplished and expert coach, but as a tiny fierce mother, which mentions the most.
Shishkova and Naunov had trained the Boston skating club, where they formed their son, Maxim Naumov, the 2020 national junior champion who finished fourth to the senior nationals last week, among many people who have traveled to learn from them. Petukhov said that one of his favorite memories of the couple will help to train Maxim from a young age, looking at him growing up in the elite international athlete he is today. “It was very pleasant and very pleasant to see that not only our friends had always done well, but their son, Maxim, also follows their steps.”
The couple also trained Lane, the 16 -year -old super talented skater who had gone to watch a Christmas ice show in the open air and told his mother that he thought he could do that, a few years later, He landed the triple triple jump combination on the national development camp. Blake and Goldberg-Baldwin said Lane was one of the most natural skaters they had ever worked with. They each expressed how you could give him a correction, or a new skill to learn, and something that would take other weeks or months to other children to control, he would simply pat the ice and accomplish.
“He just had such a passion for sport,” said Blake. “He was completely in it. And not only the skating side, but also with the community side. Everyone at the ice loved him. All children have serious towards him.
His mother, Christine, was far from the image of an arrogant mother, said Goldberg-Baldwin. She often asked what to do and where they were supposed to be – her ascent through the ranks had been so rapid, that unlike other parents, she had no years to look at her child growing from lower levels to acquire the ‘experience. His sincerity and his commitment to support his son were consumed.
Blake had also worked with Jinna Han, the 13 -year -old who had just went to the development camp for the first time. He described it as a firecracker, with so much energy that it seemed that she could break out, but always with a ready smile and a excited “hello” every time you saw it.
“She was still in the director’s chair,” said Blake about working with her on choreography and performance skills. “She knew what she wanted. She knew where she wanted. She was the boss. She just had such a wonderful spirit about her.
He described his parents as a unit, one or the other seated while looking at her skating in the early morning, fully tangled in the community. Always favorable, always friendly.
Blake said he returned to the ice in the days following the accident, not knowing what to do. It’s a new skating season for young skaters, and it’s time to make new routines. With Shishkova and Naumov, he was choosing the best music for each child and their progress in the following year. Normally, chief coaches would have blocked programs. First a jump, then a step sequence, the rules and requirements of the sport that guide them. Now Blake doesn’t know where to start. And going back to the ice with so many missing faces was perhaps the most difficult.
“It was a really heavy feeling that crossed the doors,” he said. If he closes the eyes, the habits and rituals of each disappeared are so clear. “There are certain places in the ice rink, where you can see where they sat to lace their skates. You can see where they would warm up. You can see them surround the ice. When he enters the skate room, it’s almost as if Shishkova and Naumov were still there. She would be sitting curled up on her pause chair, playing games on her phone, with Naumov on her rare seated pauses nearby.
The Boston skating club organized several watches from their community at the end of last week. Goldberg-Baldwin said nearly 200 people presented themselves on Thursday, saying speeches, crying together and remaining in lasting hugs. Until now, with the world championships to come in March, which will be held in Boston, plans are underway for other memorials and performance of the skaters who loved those who lost. But right now, it’s just a day at a time.
“We all vacillate between disbelief and despair at the same time,” said Blake. “It’s absolutely devastating what happened. And I think the skating community reacts and accumulates in this respect of “tight community”. The outpouring of support and love is just it’s really incredible ”