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Figure skaters Maxim Naumov kept his late parents, Evgenia Shishkova And Vadim Naumovthat was close to his heart when he competed in the 2026 United States Figure Skating Championships.
After his short program on Thursday, January 8, Maxim, 24, sat at the “kiss-and-cry” booth to receive his scores alongside the coach. Vladimir Petrenko. While waiting for the results, Maxim held up a photo of his mother and father with him on an ice rink.
He was spotted crying and embracing the family portrait once the judges’ artistic and technical scores 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, DC. The 1994 world champions were 52 and 55 years old respectively.
PIERRE VERDY/AFP via Getty Images Russian figure skating duo Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were partners on and off the ice. The couple sparked a romance soon after they began competing as pairs skating partners in 1985. The two-time Olympians won several titles together before hanging up their skates in 1998. […]
Evgenia and Vadim were among the victims of the Washington DC plane crash, from which there were no survivors. The couple were returning home from a figure skating development camp in the United States with their students from the Skating Club of Boston. Maxim had competed at the senior level of the tournament earlier that month.
“Max was participate in the American championships in the senior men’s event, men’s championship”, CEO of the Skating Club of Boston Doug Zeghibe said during a press conference about the crash on January 29, 2025. “He placed fourth, which is a medal. His time in Wichita ended on Sunday with the men’s event. He was actually on a plane on Monday. I flew back with him. He had no reason to stay at the national development camp.”
According to Zeghibe, Evgenia and Vadim were present at Maxim’s performances.
Maxim Naumov competes in the men’s short program at the 2026 United States Figure Skating Championships.
Matthieu Stockman/Getty Images“Both his parents were with him while he competed,” Zeghibe said. “It’s well known that Mom was always too nervous to watch him skate, but his Dad was with him. Dad was in kisses and tears sharing his great performance. … [Max was] very close to his parents.
Maxim broke his silence on the tragedy two months later.
“My mother let me know that they were changing flights and [asked] if I could get them back,” he recalls on a March 2025 issue of the Today to show. “My mom always texts me and calls me as soon as they land.”
Ice skater Maxim Naumov is being cared for by a family friend “around the clock” after the loss of his parents, 1994 world champions Evgenia “Zhenya” Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who died in the recent plane crash in Washington DC. Friends of Naumov, 23, spoke to People in an interview published on Sunday February 2 about […]
According to Maxim, the last thing his parents said to him was that they were “proud” of his skating routine.
“It was actually my mom who 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, part of my life was about making them proud. The only way out is to get through this. 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, with such an intense training program, basically, I have a list [of] A, B, C, D, E, F, G, these are the things I have to do. This is no longer the case. There is no list. It’s just free. I can just be free on the ice.
Maxim returned to the rink later that month, pay tribute to his mother and father during the American figure skating performance Legacy on Ice. He started the routine by placing two white roses on a table.
“I really skated with my heart, really,” he remembers. Today host Craig Melvin. “I wasn’t thinking about steps. I wasn’t thinking about jumps or pirouettes or anything like that. I just let my body go, and I had never felt that before. I just had such an overwhelming emotion of love in that moment.”
