One of the most emotional stories coming into the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan centers around men’s figure skater Max Naumov.
There’s no doubt he is a fantastic skater, but he nearly stepped away from the sport last year.
“I didn’t know that I was if I was ever going to skate again, period, let alone competing,” Naumov recently said.
It’s because Naumov lost both of his parents in a plane crash on January 29, 2025. The former Russian skating Olympians were among the members of the Skating Club of Boston on a flight that collided with a military helicopter in Washington, DC. Sixty-seven people died. The family was going to fly back from the competition together, but Naumov said his parents and several others decided to take an earlier flight.
At the National Championships, where Naumov earned the third spot on Team USA, he held tightly to a picture of his parents.
“My dad would always be by the boards, by the side, you know, cheering me on, following me and in that kiss and cry moment, we always had some of our most intimate, you know, bonding family moments. So I really wanted to feel their presence in in the kiss and cry,” Naumov said.
As the emotions poured out of him, the crowd and his fellow skaters were there to help pull him through.
“I almost don’t even remember hearing my scores, because I was so just in the zone of competition,” Naumov reflected.
Naumov has a large extended family in the Boston skating world.
Naumov took over the Youth Academy at the club, a program founded by his late parents.
Now the memory of his parents is headed to Milan with their son, a dream fulfilled despite tragedy.
“I will definitely, definitely be taking some photos with me. I want them to be there as well, to share that experience with me and to really feel their presence in that moment, in the kiss and cry, or even just in my in my room, you know, placing them there and kind of just giving them a glance in the mornings and and telling them that, you know, we’re here,” Naumov said.
He’ll have them in his heart as he laces up his skates for the world’s biggest stage.
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