Nearly one year after Maxim Naumov spoke with his parents about what it would take to join them as an Olympian in figure skating, a conversation that would be one of his last with his parents before their tragic deaths, Naumov fulfilled that dream Sunday when he was named to the U.S. figure skating team bound for the Winter Olympics.
Naumov, 24, was one of 16 skaters selected to the U.S. Olympic Team following the U.S. figure skating championships in St. Louis after he finished third Saturday behind U.S. champion Ilia Malinin and runner-up Andrew Torgashev.
Naumov’s parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, were world champion in pairs figure skating in 1994, the year they competed at their second Winter Olympics, representing Russia. They moved to the U.S. in 1998 to coach at the Skating Club of Boston. Last January at the 2025 U.S. championships, in Wichita, Kansas, Naumov finished fourth on Jan. 26 and left Wichita on a flight soon after.
His parents stayed longer to attend a developmental camp. En route home, their American Airlines flight to Washington collided in midair with a military helicopter over Washington’s Potomac River. The crash killed 67 people, 28 of them athletes, coaches or parents connected to U.S. figure skating.
During this week’s championships, Naumov held a photo featuring him as a child on skates, holding his parents’ hands, after his routine.
“I thought of them immediately,” Naumov said Sunday, according to U.S. Figure Skating. “I wish they could be here to experience it with me, but I do feel their presence, and they are with me.”
The Olympic figure skating competition will take place Feb. 6-19 in Milan. The U.S. title was Malinin's fourth straight, and he will enter the Olympics as a favorite to win gold.
“I came into this competition thinking how grateful I am to even have the ability to compete and the fact that I overcame so, so much,” Naumov told reporters Saturday. “Looking back, even not being able to lace up my skates and not knowing if I was going to compete, let alone skate, what I did [Saturday] — I don’t even have the words, honestly, of just what I had to overcome to be here.”
