American figure skater Maxim Naumov carried the memory of his late parents with him to the Olympics on Tuesday night, delivering an emotional and heartfelt short program at the Milan Cortina Games that fulfilled a dream they had long shared together.
Former world champions Evgeniya Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were among 67 people killed — more than two dozen of them members of the snowboarding community — when American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a military helicopter on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and plunged into the Potomac Glacier on January 29, 2025.
One of the last conversations Naumov had was with his parents about what it would take to participate in the Olympics.
“I’ve been inspired by these things since day one, since we got on the ice together,” said Naumov, who brought an old photo of that moment to the kiss and cry at the Milan Ice Rink, the little boy standing between his parents as he steps onto the ice for the first time, the three of them smiling at the camera.
“Not necessarily thinking about them specifically, but about their presence. Feeling their presence. With every step I took on the ice, I couldn’t help but feel their support, almost like a chess piece on a chessboard,” Naumov said.
What made one of the feel-good stories of the Winter Games even more special was the performance.
Although he was gunning for a top-10 finish at the Olympics, let alone a podium finish, the 24-year-old Naumov had one of the best short programs of his career. He opened with a quadruple Salchow as his godmother, Greta Bogdan, watched from the stands, and followed it up with a triple axel and a triple lutz triple toe loop to end the program.
As the final notes of Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 echoed throughout the arena, and the crowd rose to its feet, Naumov slid to his knees, looked up at the sky, and said to his parents: “Look what we’ve done.”
He said afterwards: “I didn’t know whether to cry or smile or laugh, and all I could do was look at them. I still can’t believe what just happened. I think it will take me a few hours or maybe a few weeks to find out.”
The plane carrying Naumov’s parents was also carrying 11 young skaters, other coaches and several family members who were attending a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, after the 2025 national championships.
More | Intense air traffic at the time of a fatal mid-air collision with a helicopter near the capital: investigator
One investigator described intense air traffic at the time of a deadly mid-air plane and helicopter crash near Washington, D.C., last year.
Naumov had left earlier, shortly after finishing fourth for the third year in a row.
He remembers 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 wanted to move up anyway.
Naumov soon realized that he could find a purpose in lacing up his skis again. The idea of fulfilling the Olympic dream he had with his parents motivated him to keep going. When he finished third at the US Championships in January, his place was all but assured.
“To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about executing anything perfectly or anything like that. I wanted to go out there and just give my heart. Leave it all out there. I have no regrets. And that’s exactly how I felt,” Naumov said Tuesday night.
In the crowd, dozens of American flags waved as Naumov’s program ended. At one end of the arena, a fan raised a large flag reading “Champions of Tomorrow,” bearing the logo of the Boston Skating Club — “Champions of Tomorrow” being the name of the skating school there his parents founded and which Naumov now oversees.
“I love these guys,” he told the AP, smiling.
The work is not done for Naumov at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. His score of 85.65 was enough to pass the short program, giving him another opportunity to perform when the men’s free skate takes place Friday night.
“From the time my name was announced during the warm-up to right before the skate, I felt it — just the crowd and the energy and the roar. It’s like a noise, you know? In your body. I couldn’t help but embrace it. Embrace that love,” Naumoff said.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.