Maxim Naumov Honors Late Parents at Figure Skating Championships 1 Year After Their Deaths in D.C. Plane Crash

NEED TO KNOW

• Maxim Naumov paid tribute to his late parents Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Thursday
• Naumov's parents were among the 67 killed in the Jan. 29, 2025 Washington, D.C. plane crash
• Naumov is vying for a spot on the U.S. men's figure skating team ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics

Just under a year after the Washington, D.C. plane tragedy claimed both his parents’ lives, Maxim Naumov made sure they were still with him at perhaps the most pivotal moment of his push to make the U.S. figure skating team for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Naumov, 24, choked back tears and smiled as he held up a photo of himself as a 3-year-old boy standing alongside his parents, Russian Olympic figure skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, while he awaited his score at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Thursday, Jan. 8.

The emotional moment at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo., made for one of the most captivating stories of the competition, as Naumov’s 85.72 temporarily put him in first place.

“This program is very meaningful to me, and I spent so much time in practice connecting with it and evolving it and developing it to be as good as I can possibly make it,” Naumov told USA Today. “To go out there and really share that emotion with everybody has been unreal.”

The Hartford, Conn., native added: “Sharing the vulnerability with the audience and me feeling their energy back has been something I remember for the rest of my life.”

By the end of Thursday night’s competition, Naumov finished in fourth place — one spot off the podium with the rest of the weekend still to go.

There are three spots on the U.S. men’s national figure skating team, according to USA Today. The first spot is widely seen as a lock to go to "Quad God" Ilia Malinin, while Jason Brown is likely to earn the second, according to the outlet — meaning Naumov is vying against remaining top skaters Tomoki Hiwatashi and Andrew Torgashev for the final spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Earning a trip to the Olympics was one of the last things Naumov spoke with his parents about before Shishkova, 52, and Naumov, 55, were among the 67 people killed in the Jan. 29, 2025 plane crash between American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., he told the Associated Press on Thursday. The 24-year-old's parents performed together at the 1992 Winter Olympics and again at the 1994 Winter Games, and hoped to see their son — whom they also coached — make the 2026 event in Italy.

“It’s the ultimate goal,” Naumov said Thursday, according to the AP. “It’s what my parents and I — one of our last conversations was about exactly that, and you know, it would mean the world to me to do that. So that’s what we’re fighting for.”

Naumov last saw his parents at last year’s U.S. national championships, according to the AP. After Naumov finished fourth at last year’s competition, he opted to take an earlier flight home than them back from Wichita. His parents instead stayed behind to help lead a development camp and were headed home when their flight struck the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River.

There was a time when Naumov thought he might never step back on the ice in the aftermath of his parents’ death. But in March 2025, he stepped back in front of an audience for the first time to take part in U.S. Figure Skating’s “Legacy on Ice” tribute to his parents and the other camp participants who died in the crash. Weeks later, he was invited to take part in the 2025 World Championships and received a minute-long standing ovation from the crowd.

At the time, Naumov told the AP skating had provided a welcomed escape in the months following his parents’ death, as he set his sights back on the goal he, his mother, and his father had for him to make the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“As soon as I hit the ice, my brain just — I don’t know whether it’s focus or just calmness or stillness or what, but it feels like I tune everything out,” Naumov told the AP then. “And I’m just talking with them, and they’re helping me.”

He added: “I don’t hear the crowd. I don’t hear the announcers, I don’t hear anything. I just have this internal dialogue and I’m just able to almost be calm and just be in my heart. And they’re always there, too. And every time I think of them, especially when I’m on the ice, it really, really helps me get through.”

The U.S. Figure Skating Championships continue Friday with women’s qualifying events, while Naumov and the rest of the U.S. men’s skaters return to the ice Saturday for the final round of the 2026 competition. The U.S. team for the 2026 Winter Olympics is scheduled to be announced Sunday.

Read the original article on People