US figure skater Maxim Naumov may not have won a medal but he made his late parents proud on Friday night as he competed on the Winter Olympic stage.
The 24-year-old lost his parents, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, last year when they were among the 67 people killed after American Airlines Flight 5342 crashed into a military helicopter on approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport and fell into the dark depths of the Potomac River.
Over a year on from their deaths, Naumov finished his Winter Games debut with an emotional free skate Friday night.
It wasn’t a perfect program. Far from it. Naumov fell twice on quad salchows and was uneven throughout. But the point total wasn’t the point.
Naumov finished 20th overall with a total score of 223.36, combining the short program and free skate, but he insisted that he was proud of his performance following the emotional challenges of the past year.
‘To be honest, I just feel proud,’ Naumov said afterward. ‘I feel proud of the journey that it took to get to this point. That is what I look toward right now. What it took to get here has been indescribable, inwards, getting up every day when I didn’t want to and pushing through the difficult times and the uncertainty of it all. I’m able to have some perspective on that. And I’ve had a lot of perspective in lots of areas in my life this year and skating is no different.
US figure skater Maxim Naumov finished 20th in the Winter Olympic men’s single skating
The 24-year-old fell twice throughout his free skate program, finishing with a score of 223.36
‘So yes,’ Naumov said, ‘there were some mistakes today, but man, I’m just happy and proud to be standing here today and getting through all the difficulty of this year and still standing on my feet and continuing to push onward.’
Just as he did after his short program, Naumov clutched a photo of his late parents as he awaited his score. After it was announced, he kissed the photo which showed him at three years old on the ice with his parents.
Naumov had finished fourth at the national championships in Wichita, Kansas, last January before heading home to the Boston area, while his parents – world pairs champions-turned-coaches – stayed behind to participate in a youth development camp.
Their plane was carrying more than two dozen members of the tight-knit figure skating community when it crashed.
Vadim and Evgenia were crowned pairs world champions in ice skating in 1994 and were the people who introduced Naumov to the sport, remaining a key influence over his career up until their death.
He wanted to fulfill a dream that he shared with his parents by making it to the Olympics; they were fifth at the 1992 Albertville Games and fourth at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
After January’s championships, Naumov said of his grieving process: ‘Once a week I try to have that space with them, in whatever capacity that might be.
Naumov clutched and kissed a photo of his late parents as he awaited his score
Naumov said that he was proud of his performance following the year’s emotional challenges
‘It could be a photo, talking to someone about them. It could be anything. It’s been therapeutic in a way.’
To this day, Naumov wears around his neck a gold chain with a cross, which he received on his baptism day. On his finger is a white gold ring with a single diamond, which his father once wore on his pinkie and passed down to him several years ago.
‘I mean, there’s parts of life that are difficult, you know? But I think within those difficult times and moments of like, talking about this story, it’s still such a privilege to share,’ he said back in January.
‘My intention is to share it as much as possible, because not only do my parents deserve all the praise and recognition and the fact that I wouldn’t be here without them, but also to inspire other athletes, or people in general, to know that there is a way. No matter what, there is a way.’
Naumov’s US teammate, Ilia Malinin, who had been the favorite for the gold, also missed out on medalling after suffering a collapse in the free skate, which saw him tumble out of podium contention into eighth.
