Figure skater Maxim Naumov kept his late parents, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, close to his heart when he competed at the 2026 United States Figure Skating Championships.
After his short program on Thursday, January 8, Maxim, 24, sat in the “kiss-and-cry” booth to receive his scores alongside coach Vladimir Petrenko. While awaiting the results, Maxim held up a throwback photo of his mom and dad with him on an ice rink.
He was spotted crying and kissed the family portrait once the judges’ artistic and technical marks were revealed.
Evgenia and Vadim were killed in January 2025 after boarding a plane in Kansas, which tragically collided with a helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. The 1994 world champions were 52 and 55, respectively.
Evgenia and Vadim were among the victims of the D.C. plane crash, of which there were no survivors. The couple were traveling home from a U.S. Figure Skating development camp with their students from the Skating Club of Boston. Maxim had competed at the tournament’s senior level earlier that month.
“Max was competing at the U.S. Championships in the senior men’s event, championship men,” Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said in a press conference about the January 29, 2025 crash. “He placed fourth, which is a medaling spot. His time in Wichita concluded on Sunday with the men’s event. He was actually on a plane on Monday. I came back with him. He had no reason to stay at the National Development Camp.”
According to Zeghibe, Evgenia and Vadim were present for Maxim’s performances.
“Both of his parents were with him while he was competing,” Zeghibe said. “It’s well-known Mom was always too nervous to watch him skate, but his Dad was with him. Dad was in the kiss-and-cry sharing his great performance. … [Max was] very close with his parents.”
Maxim broke his silence on the tragedy two months later.
“My mom let me know that they’re switching flights and [asked] if I could pick them up,” he recalled on a March 2025 broadcast of the Today show. “My mom always texts me and calls me soon as they land.”
According to Maxim, the last thing his parents told him was that they were “proud” of his skating routine.
“It was actually my mom that called me, and she said, ‘Hey, I just want you to know that we love you and we’re proud of you.’ It means everything to me,” he said. “I mean, my whole life, a part of it was to make them proud. The only way out is through. I don’t have the strength or the passion or the drive or the dedication of one person anymore. It’s three people.”
He continued, “When you’re in such a regiment, such an intense training schedule, essentially, I have a list [of] A, B, C, D, E, F, G, these are the things that I have to get done. It doesn’t feel like that anymore. There’s no list. It’s just free. I can just be free on the ice.”
Maxim returned to the rink later that month, performing a tribute to his mom and dad during the Legacy on Ice U.S. Figure Skating Benefit. He began the routine by placing two white roses on a table.
“I skated truly from my heart, like, genuinely,” he recalled to Today host Craig Melvin. “I wasn’t thinking about the steps. I wasn’t thinking about the jumps or the spins or anything like that. I just let my body go, and I never felt that before. I just had such an overwhelming emotion of love in that moment.”
