Maxim Naumov is going for the gold in honor of his late parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova.
The professional figure skater is competing in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics for Team USA one year after his mom and dad — who were also Olympic skaters and later became his coaches — died in a plane crash.
Vadim and Evgenia were among the 67 people killed when an American Airlines plane collided with a Black Hawk helicopter above Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, 2025. Vadim was 55 and Evgenia was 52 when they died.
Maxim, the couple’s only child, has an impressive skating resume, having won the bronze medal at the 2026 US Figure Skating Championships earlier this year. He also won the gold medal in the 2020 US junior national champion.
The 24-year-old is set to compete in the men’s singles figure skating free skate in Milan on Friday night.
When Maxim qualified for the skating event at the short program on Tuesday, he held up a photo of his parents and kissed it.
“Just feeling my parents guiding me from one element to another and just keeping me grounded,” he said after his performance. “Almost like a chess piece on a chessboard from one element to another. Unlike any other feeling I’ve ever felt before.”
Keep scrolling to learn more about Maxim Naumov’s late parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova.
Where are Maxim Naumov’s parents from?
Vadim and Evgenia were both born in Russia.
After tying the knot in 1995, the couple moved to the US in 1998. They initially settled down in Simsbury, Conn., before relocating to Norwood, Mass., where they lived until their deaths.
When did Maxim Naumov’s parents compete in the Olympics?
Vadim and Evgenia competed as a pair for Team Russia at the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics. They failed to medal both times.
But the couple had more success when they competed in several World Figure Skating Championships, winning bronze in 1993, gold in 1994 and silver in 1995.
The pair also won gold at the 1995-1996 ISU Grand Prix Final in Paris.
How many children did Maxim Naumov’s parents have?
Maxim was Vadim and Evgenia’s only child. He was born on August 1, 2001, in Hartford, Conn.
According to Maxim’s US figure skating bio, he “fist stepped on the ice at age 3, but began skating at age 5.”
Maxim’s parents became his coaches early in his skating career. They worked at the Skating Club of Boston.
How did Maxim Naumov’s parents die?
Vadim and Evgenia died last January on American Airlines Flight 5342 while flying home from watching Maxim at a nationals competition in Wichita, Kan.
Army pilots flying the Black Hawk helicopter accidentally crashed into the American Airlines jet over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The collision claimed 67 lives — 62 on the American Airlines flight and 3 on the helicopter.
Maxim previously revealed that his parents were supposed to catch a different flight before they got on the ill-fated American Airlines plane. He was supposed to pick them up when they landed.
The Olympic athlete also shared his mother’s final words to him.
“She was like, ‘Hey, I just want you to know that we love you and we’re proud of you,’“ Maxim said on “Today” last year. “It means everything to me. My whole life, a part of it, was to make them proud.”
Ahead of the Olympics, Maxim said in an interview that he wants to inspire people to be “resilient.”
“That’s the feeling and mentality I’ve clung to this entire season,” he shared. “And that is where you find strength, and that’s where you grow as a person.”
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