US Figure Skater Qualifies for Olympics After Losing Parents in a Plane Crash [WATCH]

American figure skater Maxim Naumov has qualified for his first Olympic Games, earning a spot on the United States men’s figure skating team one year after his parents were killed in a plane crash near Washington, D.C.

As The New York Post reported, Naumov, 24, was named to the U.S. Winter Olympic team following his third-place finish at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships held over the weekend in St. Louis.

The upcoming Winter Games will take place next month in Milan. After learning his final placement, Naumov held a photo of his parents while waiting for his score and kissed it in an emotional moment captured at the event.

American figure skater qualifies for first Olympics a year after parents died in plane crash https://t.co/nwyjvz0oiw pic.twitter.com/dgOD3pQjgp

— New York Post (@nypost) January 11, 2026

“We did it,” Naumov said after learning he had made the Olympic team, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We absolutely did it.”

Naumov’s parents, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were former Olympic figure skaters who competed as a pairs team. The two were two-time Olympians and won the World Championships in pairs in 1994.

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They were among the 67 people killed in January 2025 when an American Airlines plane collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan International Airport.

The crash claimed the lives of 28 people connected to the figure skating community. Shishkova and Naumov were returning from a figure skating championship and development camp in Nashville at the time of the incident.

Maxim Naumov, a Hartford, Connecticut, native, had returned home earlier on a separate flight after competing at the event and finishing fourth, according to the Associated Press.

One of his final conversations with his parents focused on the 2026 Winter Olympics and his goal of qualifying for the U.S. team. Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were coaches at the Skating Club of Boston.

In March, Naumov delivered an emotional performance at a charity skating event honoring the victims of the crash near Ronald Reagan International Airport. Following the performance, he dropped to his knees and wept on the ice.

That same month, Naumov spoke publicly about the tragedy during an interview on the “Today” show.

He recalled that his parents had asked him to pick them up from the airport and described them as “beautiful people” who were “so incredibly kind.”

“The only way out is through,” Naumov said during the interview.

“There’s no other way. There are no options but to keep going. I don’t have the strength or the passion or the drive, or the dedication of one person anymore. It’s three people.”

Naumov is the son of two Russian-born parents and has represented the United States throughout his competitive career.

His Olympic qualification comes after what he described as a season focused on perseverance and personal resolve.

Olympic dream achieved for Maxim Naumov

@nbc & @peacock #WinterOlympics | #MTUSA pic.twitter.com/WtU3vwV8JZ

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) January 12, 2026

“It’s all about being resilient,” Naumov said before the championships, according to the Associated Press.

“That’s the feeling and mentality I’ve 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, ‘What if? What if I can do it? What if, despite everything that happened to me, I can go out and do it?’”

“And that is where you find strength, and that’s where you grow as a person,” he continued.

TRUE STRENGTH.

Maxim Naumov’s powerful 163.44 free skate locks in the FIRST U.S. Figure Skating Championships podium of his senior career. pic.twitter.com/kpyK49WEeo

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) January 11, 2026

Naumov will compete in Milan alongside fellow U.S. men’s figure skating representatives Ilia Malinin and Andrew Torgashev.

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