Maxim Naumov with Family Friends After Parents Died in D.C. Crash (Exclusive)

Maxim Naumov is facing the incomprehensible after tragically losing both his parents – 1994 World Figure Skating champions Evgenia “Zhenya” Shishkova and Vadim Naumov – in the Washington D.C. plane crash. 

The 23-year-old figure skater from Connecticut is being looked after by a close family friend who has been “with him 24 hours” a day since his parents Zhenya and Vadim died on board the American Airlines 5342 jet which collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29.

“I know a couple who is with him right now,” Ekaterina “Katia” Gordeeva, a Russian teammate of Zhenya and Vadium Naumov at the 1994 Olympics and friend of the couple, tells PEOPLE. She says the woman looking after Maxim was “a very dear friend” to his late parents. 

“They weren’t even in Washington yet, but … that morning [of the plane crash], we all connected right away, all the people from Simsbury,” says Katia, referring to the town in Connecticut where she lives and where Zhenya, Vadim lived. 

Katia says that the family friend supporting Maxim and his parents used to be “together all the time. So she is like a godmother to him, and she is with him right now there and her husband.”

According to Katia, the couple has known Maxim since he was born and were “very supportive to Vadim and Zhenya all the time” with their son. “I know that Maxim has someone with him 24 hours,” she tells PEOPLE. 

Zhenya and Vadim competed alongside Katia and her late husband Sergei Grinkov at the 1994 Olympics, where they finished in fourth place. They wed in 1995 and retired in 1998 to skate professionally while moving to Simsbury, where they would eventually welcome their son Maxim.

According to Katia, a lot of the Russian skating community she grew up with also settled in Simsbury, building a community there. This is where she says she grew close with Zhenya and Vadim, particularly in recent years. 

“We had a really nice one New Year together, we rented like a little house, Airbnb, and we had an amazing time together, just like playing snowballs and like being like a kid. It was very nice and friendly people,” she tells PEOPLE. 

Katia also shares that she and Zhenya bonded over their pregnancies with her daughter and Maxim as they were pregnant at the same time.

“I know that my daughter reached out to him because they are closer to her in age,” she says. Regarding the plane crash that claimed Zhenya and her husband’s life, she continued, “My daughter was so devastated yesterday. She was like, ‘I have to go. I have to go see him right now.’ ”

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Following the tragic deaths of his parents in the D.C. crash, it was announced via X on Jan. 27 Maxim had withdrawn from the Four Continents Championships, which would’ve been his final figure skating event this season.

The Skating Club of Boston confirmed several other members of the U.S. figure skating community were killed in the crash, including Zhenya and Vadim.

In a statement provided to PEOPLE, U.S. Figure Skating said that they are “devastated” by the losses.