Just days after placing fourth at the U.S. Figure Skating Championship, Maxim Naumov suffered an unimaginable loss.
The skater’s parents, former Olympians Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, died on Jan. 29 when a military Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines airplane over Washington, D.C.
Sixty-seven people were killed in the midair collision, 28 of whom were members of the figure skating community. Naumov, 23, told “TODAY” co-anchor Craig Melvin that his parents changed flights before the tragic accident.
“My mom let me know that they’re switching flights and that if I could pick them up,” Naumov said. “My mom always texts me and calls me as soon as they land.”
However, the call never came.
American Eagle Flight 5342 was traveling from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people aboard, while the Black Hawk Army chopper held three people. It was the first major accident involving a U.S. commercial airliner since 2009.
Naumov’s parents were Russian Olympians and world champions. After they retired from competition, they settled in the U.S. and became coaches while raising their only son.
“They were beautiful people. They were so incredibly kind,” Maxim Naumov said, sharing how he moves through the grief. “The only way out is through. 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.”
On March 2, he returned to the skating ring for the first time since his parents’ death. His first performance was for the “Legacy on Ice” event in Washington, D.C. It was a moving tribute to all the lives that were lost, and after, filled with emotions, he fell to his knees.
“I skated truly, like, from my heart, like, genuinely. I wasn’t thinking about the steps, I wasn’t thinking about the jumps or the spins or anything like that,” he said. “I just let my body go, and I’ve never felt that before.”
He added, “I just had such an overwhelming emotion of love in that moment.”
Naumov has yet to make a final decision about what his next steps are in the sport. He is currently an alternate for the U.S. national team and has taken over the youth academy program that his parents founded at the Skating Club of Boston.
“I would not be the person I am today without them. Their love — and their care, and attention to detail was evident in each stage of my life,” he said. “They were always like superheroes to me.”
