Maxim Naumov started determine skating due to his mother and father. Nearly precisely one 12 months after shedding each of them in a aircraft crash, he’ll make his Olympic debut for Staff USA.
Naumov, 24, was along with his mother and father, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkovaon the U.S. Determine Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas in January 2025, however they stayed behind after his fourth-place end to attend a developmental clinic.
Vadim and Evgenia flew house on American Eagle Flight 5342, which was concerned in a mid-air collision with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. They have been among the many 67 individuals who died within the accident.
Within the speedy aftermath of the tragedy, Maxim didn’t know if he would ever lace up a pair of skates once more, not to mention compete on the world’s largest stage.
Determine skater Maxim Naumov boarded a flight out of Wichita simply days earlier than his mother and father have been killed when their American Airways aircraft crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, January 29. Naumov, 23, competed on the U.S. Determine Skating Championships in Wichita on Sunday, January 26, along with his mother and father, Evgenia Shishkova and (…)
“All I wished to do in that second was lay in my mattress or lay on my sofa and simply rot, basically,” Maxim informed The New York Occasions in January. “And it was a second the place I knew that the exact opposite of that was the trail.”
Because the weeks went on, Maxim surrounded himself with household associates from his hometown of Simsbury, Connecticut, ensuring he had firm 24 hours a day.
Maxim Naumov
Photograph by Matthew Stockman/Getty Pictures“I do know a pair who’s with him proper now,” mentioned Ekatern “Value” Gerdeevaa former teammate and shut pal of Maxim’s mother and father, in a February 2025 interview with Individuals. “They weren’t even in Washington but, however … that morning (of the aircraft crash), all of us related instantly, all of the folks from Simsbury.”
Although it took him some time to skate once more, he was fast to take the mantle from his mother and father in main their improvement program for youngsters in Boston. By watching them, he was reminded of the fervour he had for the game since he first stepped onto the ice at age 5.
PIERRE VERDY/AFP through Getty Pictures Russian determine skating duo Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov have been companions on and off the ice. The couple sparked a romance not lengthy after they started competing as pairs skating companions in 1985. The 2-time Olympians went on to win a number of titles collectively earlier than hanging up their skates in 1998. (…)
Fittingly, he certified for the Olympics by returning to the U.S. Determine Skating Championships in January 2026, this time in St. Louis. He positioned third, incomes a spot on the staff.
Maxim introduced a photograph of his mother and father to the press convention after the occasion and held it up for the cameras.
“We did it,” he mentioned. “We did it collectively.”
Maxim added that he considered his mother and father “instantly” when he realized he had certified.
“I want they may very well be right here to expertise it with me, however I do really feel their presence, and they’re with me,” he mentioned.
Maxim added, “I got here into this competitors pondering how grateful I’m to even have the flexibility to compete and the truth that I overcame so, a lot. Trying again, even not with the ability to lace up my skates and never understanding if I used to be going to compete, not to mention skate, what I did (Saturday) — I don’t even have the phrases, truthfully, of simply what I needed to overcome to be right here.”
The determine skating world is coping with a serious loss after American Airways flight 5342 crashed with a number of members of the group onboard. Throughout a Thursday, January 30, press convention, The Skating Membership of Boston’s CEO, Doug Zeghibe, mentioned “to one of the best of our information, 14 skaters returning house” from the U.S. Determine Skating Nationwide (…)
Two weeks later, on the one 12 months anniversary of his mother and father’ deaths, Maxim remembered them with a tribute through Instagram.
“It’s onerous to consider that it’s already been one full 12 months. Essentially the most troublesome 12 months of my whole life,” he wrote alongside a photograph of them. “I nonetheless discover myself waking up some days and simply questioning why? How may this all have occurred? For what cause? Why have been they taken away from me so quickly?”
He continued, “Sadly, there are at all times extra questions than solutions. However, regardless of all of that I prepare, placed on my coat and head out the door. Each. Single. Day. As a result of I’ve a job to do. I’m shortly reminded of the purpose we got down to obtain after I was 5 years previous. Collectively. As a household.”