On Tuesday night, U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov skated with the cherished memory of his late parents at the Milan Cortina Olympics, delivering a moving and heartfelt short program that fulfilled a dream they had all shared.
Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were once world champions in pairs figure skating, tragically lost their lives when American Airlines Flight 5342 crashed into a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport, subsequently plunging into the icy Potomac River on January 29, 2025. Among the 67 victims were more than two dozen figure skating community members.
Naumov’s last conversations with his parents revolved around what it would take for him to reach the Olympics.
“They have been my inspiration from day one, ever since we first stepped onto the ice together,” Naumov shared. He brought an old photograph to the kiss-and-cry area at the Milano Ice Skating Arena. It captured a young Naumov standing between his parents, all smiles, as he took his first steps on the ice.
“It’s not about thinking of them specifically,” Naumov explained, “but feeling their presence. With every glide and step I took on the ice, I felt their support, almost as if I were a chess piece being guided across a board.”
This heartfelt performance became one of the most uplifting stories of the Winter Games, adding an extra layer of emotion and significance to the event.
While a long shot to make the top 10 at the Olympics, much less land on the podium, the 24-year-old Naumov nevertheless had one of the best short programs of his career. He opened with a quad salchow as his godmother, Gretta Bogdan, watched from the stands, and he followed up with a triple axel and a triple lutz-triple toe loop to finish out the program.
As the last notes of “Nocturne No. 20” by Frederic Chopin reverberated through the arena, and the crowd rose to its feet, Naumov slid to a stop on his knees and looked to the sky, telling his parents: “Look at what we’ve done.”
“I didn’t know if I was going to cry, smile or laugh,” he said afterward, “and all I could do was look up at them. And man, I still can’t believe what just happened. I think it’s going to take me a few hours or maybe a few weeks to know.”
The plane carrying Naumov’s parents also had aboard 11 young skaters, two other coaches and several family members who had been attending a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, following the 2025 national championships.
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Naumov had flown out earlier, shortly after he had finished in fourth place for the third consecutive year.
He has recalled those first weeks after the plane crash, when little things like getting out of bed seemed impossible.
“I just wanted to rot, basically,” he told The Associated Press, though he willed himself to rise anyway.
Naumov soon realized he could find a purpose in lacing up his skates again. The idea of fulfilling the Olympic dream he harbored with his parents pushed him on. And when he finished third at the U.S. championships in January, his spot was all-but secured.
“To be honest,” Naumov said Tuesday night, “I wasn’t thinking about executing anything perfectly or anything like that. I wanted to go out there and just give my heart out. Leave everything out there. Have no regrets. And that’s exactly what I felt.”
In the crowd, dozens of American flags waved when Naumov’s program came to a conclusion. At one end of the arena, a fan held up a big flag that read, “Tomorrow’s Champions,” and carried the logo of the Skating Club of Boston – “Tomorrow’s Champions” is the name of the skating school there that his parents founded and Naumov now oversees.
“I love those guys,” he told AP, smiling.
The work isn’t done for Naumov at the Milan Cortina Olympics, though. His score of 85.65 was enough to make it through the short program, giving him another opportunity to perform when the men’s free skate takes place Friday night.
“From the time that my name was announced in the warm-up to right before the skate,” Naumov said, “I felt it – just the crowd, the energy, the roar. It’s like a buzz, you know? In your body. I couldn’t help but just embrace it. Embrace that love.”
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