{"id":285546,"date":"2026-01-15T10:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/285546\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T10:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:13:17","slug":"maxim-naumovs-emotional-return-to-us-figure-skating-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/285546\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxim Naumov’s emotional return to US Figure Skating Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS (AP) \u2014 Maxim Naumov returned to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships<\/a> on Thursday night, the final place that his parents watched him compete, and managed to hold his emotions in check until a standing ovation carried the 24-year-old right off the ice.<\/p>\n

Once in the kiss-and-cry area, Naumov finally allowed tears to trickle down his cheeks.<\/p>\n

It was less than a year ago that his parents, former world champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, died when their plane crashed into a military helicopter<\/a> on approach to Washington, D.C., and fell into the icy Potomac River. A total of 67 people were killed, including more than two dozen returning from a development camp following the U.S. championships in Wichita, Kansas.<\/p>\n

Many were young skaters, taught by the elder Naumov and Shishkova, who looked up to their son.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about being resilient,\u201d Naumov said later, when asked how he made it through such an emotional return to nationals. \u201cThat\u2019s the feeling and mentality I\u2019ve clung to this entire season. And I find in times of really difficult emotional stress, if you can just push yourself a little bit more, and almost think, \u2018What if? What if I can do it? What if, despite everything that happened to me, I can go out and do it?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that,\u201d Naumov said, \u201cis where you find strength, and that\u2019s where you grow as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naumov brought an old photograph with him to the kiss-and-cry area Thursday night. It showed him perhaps 3 years old, his parents by his side, stepping onto the ice in white skates for the first time at the International Skating Center of Connecticut.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have black skates in my size at the time,\u201d he said, \u201cbut that\u2019s OK. I was just happy to be on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the last conversations Naumov had with his parents was about the Olympics, and what it would take to earn a spot on the American team next month in Italy. His short program Thursday night, which began with a quad salchow and ended with a triple-triple combination, was good enough to briefly give him the lead, and keep him in the mix heading into Saturday\u2019s free skate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad would have told me to keep fighting for that salchow,\u201d Naumov said.<\/p>\n

What would his mother have said?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom never watched me skate. I don\u2019t think she watched past maybe 13, 14 years old,\u201d Naumov replied, smiling. \u201cTypically I\u2019d be calling her in the next 5 minutes, and you know, she\u2019d be saying, \u2018OK, good job. But we\u2019ve already forgot about it. We\u2019re thinking about the free already.\u2019 Those are her words, exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Naumov was fourth at nationals a year ago, and he had returned home from Wichita on an earlier flight. His mom and dad stayed behind for the development camp and were making their own way home when the plane crash occurred.<\/p>\n

In the days, weeks and months that followed, the younger Naumov became in some ways the face of the tragedy. He performed at a benefit in Washington<\/a> that raised more than $1.2 million for the victims\u2019 families, and he left an exhibition gala crowd during the world championships in Boston \u2014 hosted by his own Skating Club of Boston \u2014 standing in heartfelt admiration.<\/p>\n

Naumov has even taken up leadership of the renowned club\u2019s youth academy, which was started by his parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, even at a time like this, having the opportunity to be here, it\u2019s just another example of how capable I am in really difficult times,\u201d Naumov said. \u201cIt\u2019s just more and more confidence built in for me, and just having a lot of mental strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been other tributes to the victims of the crash during this year\u2019s nationals.<\/p>\n

On the opening night, 16-year-old Sophie Joline Von Felten \u2014 another member of the Skating Club of Boston \u2014 brought two photos of her own to the kiss-and-cry area. One was of Spencer Lane and his mother, Christine Lane, who were killed in the crash, the other of Jinna Han and her mother, Jin Hee Han, who also lost their lives that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tried to skate for them and feel them with me,\u201d Von Felten said, \u201cand feel like their souls were with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet no moment was as poignant as when Naumov, dressed in a simple white shirt and black slacks, stepped off the ice Thursday night. He got a big hug from his coach, Vladimir Petrenko, and then kissed that old, faded photograph of himself and his parents.<\/p>\n

When he talks about making the Olympic team, he refers to \u201cwe,\u201d as if his parents are still by his side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate goal. It\u2019s what my parents and I \u2014 one of our last conversations was about exactly that,\u201d Naumov said, \u201cand you know, it would mean the world to me to do that. So that\u2019s what we\u2019re fighting for.\u201d ___<\/p>\n

AP Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS (AP) \u2014 Maxim Naumov returned to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Thursday night, the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[18049,143276,30890,12432,18,143273,19,17,143277,105038,20513,143272,48909,68715,133,143274,143275,132,7958,27057,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-285546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-christine-lane","10":"tag-dc-wire","11":"tag-district-of-columbia","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-figure-skating","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jin-hee-han","17":"tag-local-news-for-apple","18":"tag-massachusetts","19":"tag-maxim-naumov","20":"tag-missouri","21":"tag-mo-state-wire","22":"tag-science","23":"tag-skating","24":"tag-sophie-joline-von-felten","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-virginia","27":"tag-wichita","28":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115898587716014627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}