How Maxim Naumov Made it to the Olympics After Parents' Death in Crash

American Airlines Crash: U.S. Figure Skaters Among Passengers in Fatal Collision

Maxim Naumov's parents didn't see him make the U.S. Olympic team. And they won't be in the stands when their only son takes the ice as men's figure skating gets underway Feb. 10 at the 2026 Olympics.

But the 24-year-old's mom and dad are still with him wherever he goes.

"We did it," Maxim said last month when he found out he'd be going to Milan. "We did it together."

And as he got ready to fly to Italy, he marked the first anniversary of the Jan. 29 Washington, D.C., plane crash that killed 67 people, including his parents, 1994 pairs skating world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

In total, 28 athletes, coaches and family members affiliated with U.S. Figure Skating were among the casualties when American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River as it neared Ronald Reagan National Airport.

"I still find myself waking up some days and just wondering why?" Maxim wrote in his Instagram tribute. "How could this all have happened? For what reason? Why were they taken away from me so soon?"

But there was a period of time following the crash during which Maxim didn't want to do much of anything, let alone skate.

"All I wanted to do in that moment was lay in my bed or lay on my couch and just rot, essentially," he told the New York Times last month. "And it was a moment where I knew that the complete opposite of that was the path."

He started by taking over the development program his parents founded for 4-to-7-year-olds at Skating Club of Boston. Working with the kids at the rink, he felt closer to his mom and dad. 

His parents had competed in two Olympics for Russia, so his ultimate goal had always been to follow in those particular footsteps. And, eventually, after skating in a few exhibitions last March, he decided to keep going for the dream the three of them had shared.

Before he could make that jump, however, he had to get a new coach.

"It was a deeply emotional and human moment," Vladimir Petrenko, a longtime friend of the Naumov family, told CT Insider in January of taking on the job after Maxim's parents died. "I felt an enormous sense of responsibility, because my connection with Evgenia and Vadim was very close and personal...They were not simply 'Max's parents.' They were remarkable people whose presence, values and love shaped who Max is today."

As Maxim put it in a video posted by Olympics.com in November, "Having role models be right there in the house, at the rink, just everywhere, they inspired me to want this dream. And it would mean absolutely everything for me to be at the Olympics. I'm working as hard as I possibly can, and I'm doing everything in my power to do so. Doing it for them would be even more beautiful."

In addition to Vladimir and the coach's wife, Elena Petrenko, Maxim's support system includes his longtime roommate (and now Olympics teammate) Spencer Howe, choreographer Benoît Richard, and the athlete's godparents Tony and Gretta Bogdan, who stayed with him after the crash and helped manage his parents' affairs.

As he set about perfecting his axels, Lutzes and triple toe loops, Maxim was also charting his emotional growth as he traveled the world, gearing up for the home stretch before the U.S. Olympic team was finalized.

"It’s the ultimate goal," Maxim explained to The Athletic, his Olympics fate still unknown as he sat in fourth place after his Jan. 9 short program set to Frédéric Chopin's "Nocturne No. 20.” "My parents and I, one of our last conversations was exactly about that. It would mean the absolute world to do so. It’s exactly what we’re fighting for...That is what I think about first thing in the morning and when I shut my eyes.”

While awaiting his score, he held a photograph of himself with his parents taken when he was 2 years old, Evgenia and Vadim holding his hands at the International Skating Center of Connecticut on the day he stood on ice for the first time.

“I’m just thinking about them,” he said. “Their smile. Their laugh. What they’d say to me. Their words. It all replays in my head, especially at times like this. I love them.”

He mused that, if his father had just watched his routine, he would have said of his son's performance, "‘You’ve got to be a little more confident on the [Salchow],’ I think."

But Vadim also would have said, Maxim added, that "he’s proud and we’ll keep fighting. Keep fighting to Milan. And to not give up. So, that’s exactly what I plan on doing."

And though his mother hadn't watched her son skate live since he was 13, as it made her too nervous, she would've then told him over the phone, "'It’s ok. Good job. We already forgot about it. We’re thinking about the free [skate] already.'"

Reflecting on what they talked about during nationals a year ago, he remembered how Vadim told him consistency and resilience would be key to his success moving forward, "whether it was training, competing, off ice, on ice, all of that. And I carried that through all the way to this point.”

And after three straight years of finishing fourth, Maxim ended up in third place this year after his free skate, set to "In This Shirt" by The Irrepresibles. And that proved enough for a spot on the Olympics team with 2026 U.S. champion Ilia Malinin, dubbed the "Quad God," and silver medalist Andrew Torgashev. His good friend Spencer is also in Milan, competing in pairs skating with partner Emily Chan.

And Maxim's parents are there, too, with him as always. “I know they’re looking down,” he said upon punching his ticket to the Games. “Smiling and proud.”

See smiles, tears and more of the best candid moments from the 2026 Olympics: