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Just one year after losing his parents in a tragic plane crash, figure skater Maxim Naumov is heading to the Winter Olympics to represent the United States.
Naumov, 24, was officially named to the U.S. Olympic team, which will compete in the Milan Cortina Games starting Feb. 6. He was one of three men named to the figure skating team, along with Ilia Malinin and Andrew Torgashev.
Naumov lost his parents, Evgenia “Zhenya” Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, 1994 world figure skating champions, after an American Airlines plane collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, DC, on January 29, 2025.
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Maxim Naumov holds a photo of his parents after competing in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Enterprise Center on January 10, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
There were 67 deaths in this tragic accident, 28 of them from the figure skating community. Naumov’s parents were among many to return from Wichita, Kansas – the site of the United States National Figure Skating Development Camp.
Naumov was in Wichita for the camp, but he was not on the plane.
Three days before being named to the U.S. Olympic team, Naumov was emotional after skating in their honor at the U.S. Championships, where he held up a photo of himself as a 3-year-old boy with his parents on either side of him.
“Sharing vulnerability with the audience and feeling their energy come back is something I will remember for the rest of my life,” Naumov told reporters after his skate.
Maxim Naumov competes in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Enterprise Center on January 10, 2026 in St. Louis. (Matthieu Stockman/Getty Images)
His parents were his coaches as he grew into a potential Olympic athlete. But after their deaths, Naumov didn’t know if he would even try out for the team.
But he stayed true to the goal they always had together, and it came to fruition.
“That’s what my parents and I did – one of our last conversations was about exactly that, and you know, it would mean the world to me to do that. That’s what we’re fighting for,” Naumov said last Thursday.
Maxim Naumov reacts at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships, March 30, 2025, at TD Garden in Boston. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)
The goal has been verified. Naumov now hopes to win a medal in Italy next month.
