At a Glance
- Maxim Naumov, 24, was named to the U.S. Olympic figure-skating team one year after losing both parents in the January 2025 Potomac mid-air crash.
- He finished third at the U.S. Championships in St. Louis behind Ilia Malinin and Andrew Torgashev.
- Naumov held a childhood photo with his parents after his free skate and said he “feels their presence.”
- Why it matters: A conversation about Olympic dreams was among the last he had with his world-champion parents before their deaths.
Maxim Naumov stepped onto the ice at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships carrying more than ambition. He carried a photograph: a toddler on skates clutching the hands of Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, the 1994 world pair champions who died in the January 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision. On Sunday, Naumov turned that memory into an Olympic berth.
The Call That Changed Everything
Last January, Naumov placed fourth at nationals in Wichita. His parents stayed behind for a developmental camp while he flew home. En route to Washington, their American Airlines jet collided with a military helicopter, killing 67 people, including 28 members of the skating community. Naumov’s final conversation with his parents had been about what it would take to become an Olympian.
Earning the Spot
This weekend in St. Louis, Naumov delivered the performances required to join 16 skaters named to the U.S. Olympic Team. Results:
- Ilia Malinin – champion, four-peat title
- Andrew Torgashev – runner-up
- Maxim Naumov – third place
The Olympic figure-skating competition runs Feb. 6-19 in Milan, where Malinin enters as a gold-medal favorite.
A Tribute on Ice
After his free skate, Naumov raised the photo overhead. “I thought of them immediately,” he 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.”
Saturday night, he told reporters: “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. 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 I don’t even have the words.”
Key Takeaways
- Naumov’s parents moved from Russia to the U.S. in 1998 to coach at the Skating Club of Boston.
- The 2025 crash claimed more than a quarter of its victims from figure-skating circles.
- Selection to the Olympic team fulfills the dream Naumov shared with his parents in their final talk.
