“Mom and Dad, this is for you,” the Jumbotron screen read as 24-year-old Maxim Naumov skated to the center of the rink for his Olympic debut in Milan.
What followed was an emotional figure skating routine in the men’s short program. Naumov held up a picture of himself as a little boy with his parents after his very first routine while he waited for his scores in the kiss-and-cry section. A joyful smile overcame Naumov when he landed a season-best score of 85.65 points, which placed him fourteenth overall in the competition. With tears in his eyes, he pulled the photo to his face and kissed it.
Maxim Naumov is an Olympian, and ALWAYS will be! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/KC3zFj5hjf
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 10, 2026
Since early childhood, former Olympians Vadim and Evgenia Shishkova had a singular goal for their son — that one day he would make it to the Olympics, just as they did in 1994. This Tuesday, that dream came true, but tragically, without them by his side.
On January 29, 2025, an American Airlines plane collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., and crashed into the Potomac River. Sixty-seven people were killed that day, and nearly half of them were from the figure skating community, including Naumov’s parents.
For eight months following the tragedy, Naumov didn’t compete, and he didn’t know if he would ever again. The Olympic skater had a realization as he took over his parents’ skating club for children — on the ice was where he felt closest to them, according to The New York Times. With the support of his community, Naumov began to train and once again turned his gaze to the Olympic stage.
Last month, at the one-year mark of his parents’ death, Naumov posted a moving tribute on social media: “It’s hard to believe that it’s already been one full year. The most difficult year of my entire life. I still find myself waking up some days and just wondering why? How could this all have happened? For what reason? Why were they taken away from me so soon? Unfortunately there are always more questions than answers. But, despite all of that I get ready, put on my coat and head out the door. Every. Single. Day. Because I have a job to do.”
“I am quickly reminded of the goal we set out to achieve when I was 5 years old. Together. As a family,” he wrote. “Now, 19 years later, we are here. We did it.”
In an interview with USA Today after his performance, Naumov said he knew he wasn’t alone on the ice: “I felt almost like a hand on my back pushing me forward, and just feeling my parents guiding me from one element to another, and just kind of keeping me grounded. Almost like a chess piece on a chess board, from one element to another. Unlike any other feeling I’ve ever felt.”
Once his routine finished, he said, “It’s almost like I closed my eyes and I opened them again and I was on my knees and just looking up and saying, look what we just did.”
But Naumov’s time on the Olympic ice is not over. On Friday, he will compete in the men’s free skate alongside fellow U.S. figure skaters Ilia Malinin and Andrew Torgashev.
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