Igor Pashkevich, who worked as a coach, and his student Anzhela Nikodinov were returning from regular competitions. At the airport, they were met by the parents of the young skater and offered to get home by taxi. We drove quietly and discussed the past tournament. Suddenly, a truck crashed into their car. The truck driver lost control and rammed the car.
When Pashkevich woke up, he saw a sea of blood and shrapnel around him. The skater's mother died on the spot. Angela and her father escaped with bruises. Igor was seriously injured.
In addition to many lacerations and concussion, the coach broke his occipital bone. It was then, lying in a pool of blood, that Pashkevich realized that it was time to leave California and return to Russia.
He beat Yagudin and jumped incredibly
The idea to fly home looked logical. Here he achieved the main successes in his career. Pashkevich started skating at the age of five, but there was no talk of any innate talent. His story was not like a fairy tale, when coaches at the very first training session see a future champion in a young guy.
Igor had to prove his worth with hard work. For a single skater, he had too weak lower legs. Pashkevich solved the problem by installing a special «fit» in the doorway at home. When he left the room, he did some exercises on it, eliminating the defect.
The perseverance paid off. Igor won the World Junior Championship at the very beginning of the 90s. It seemed that the young Soviet figure skater would shine, but he never became a real star. The best result of Pashkevich after that victory is the silver medal of the 1996 European Championship for adults. Then he managed to unexpectedly overtake Alexei Yagudin.
Fans of figure skating appreciated Pashkevich for his quality jumps. At the 1997 World Championships, he cleanly performed all the announced triples, which no one had previously managed at the adult level.
And almost all the elements were at the end of the performance. Now Pashkevich would receive additional points for this. However, in the last century, the judges did not pay attention to such trifles and left Igor without a medal.
Helped Medvedeva and Lipnitskaya
In the last years of his career, Pashkevich represented Azerbaijan, where there was no such serious competition within the country. Igor even went to the Olympics in Nagano, but could not compete for medals. After the Games, he ended his career, focusing on coaching. It was there that the same accident happened, which made him think about returning to his homeland. In Russia, Pashkevich was not tied to a specific club. He simply helped those who turned to him.
Once Eteri Tutberidze came with a request. Pashkevich began to help the students of «Khrustalny» with jumps. Among his wards were Yulia Lipnitskaya and Evgenia Medvedeva."I really enjoyed working with Igor. He paid attention to small details that helped. Igor explained everything very clearly and showed how to jump. He was a very good person and coach. He helped everyone who asked him for something", recalled figure skater Daria Panenkova, who worked with Pashkevich.
However, Pashkevich was unable to help himself. Money from part-time jobs in Moscow and the position of an ISU technical specialist were not enough to provide a comfortable life for the family. Then Igor began to travel to the United States, where they paid more. Unfortunately, the money did not save the former skater from a divorce. When he was left alone, he decided to return to the United States on a permanent basis. In conversations with friends, Igor admitted that he dreams of transferring his daughter to America. It was impossible, the girl stayed with her mother.
Mysterious death at the age of 45
Pashkevich devoted himself entirely to coaching, recruiting new students. The best of them was the Israeli figure skater Daniel Samokhin. In 2016, he won the World Junior Championship. However, after the winning skate, the athlete could not even hug the coach.
The Israeli Figure Skating Federation did not include Igor in the delegation to the tournament. Needless to say, this was a heavy blow for him?
A few days after Samokhin's victory on World Cup Pashkevich died. The most dry news appeared only on the FFKKR website. No details of the coach's early departure from life were announced, which gave rise to a lot of rumors.
When a person dies due to an accident or illness, official departments usually indicate this. The lack of details from the federation led many to believe that Pashkevich had committed suicide.
After some time, Igor's acquaintances no longer denied that he was depressed, and the refusal to travel to the World Youth Championship was strong for him broke. There were two versions of what happened. According to one of them, Pashkevich fell out of the ninth floor, according to another, he got into a car accident.
Six years after his death, no one has revealed the truth. This gives rise to even more rumors about the mysterious death of the once talented skater and promising coach.