Before their untimely deaths in the Flight 5342 plane crash on Jan. 29, 2025, coaches Evgenia Shiskova and Vadim Naumov had been with their son, Maxim Naumov, at every U.S. Figure Skating Championships of his career.
 
At the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships, almost a year after the tragedy, they were still with him.
 
Naumov held pictures of his parents in the kiss and cry after his performances, kissing them after receiving his scores and hiding his face behind them when he was emotional.

 
He also has a phrase embroidered inside his U.S. national team jacket: "Expect the unexpected."
 
"That's something [my father] said all the time," Naumov said.
 
They'll now be accompanying him to Italy, as Naumov finished third at the U.S. Championships to secure a spot on his first Olympic team.
 
"I'm just so grateful," Naumov told U.S. Figure Skating in St. Louis. "It's 19 full years of skating and training and sacrifice — blood, sweat, tears — everything culminating into this exact moment. It's almost indescribable with words, honestly. My heart is just so full right now."
 
Naumov even competing this season was far from a sure thing. He performed in the Legacy on Ice show in March to honor his parents, and then a few more shows. But it wasn't until the summer, five or six months after the accident, that he was even sure he wanted to.
 
"Every time that I laced up my skates again from the first time, which was absolutely brutal, I think with every time I got a bit more confidence," he said. "When I decided to go to Benoit [Richaud]'s camp in Italy, that was a moment of exploration for me and just looking at what's possible."
 
Richaud is now working as Naumov's choreographer.
 
"When he came to the camp, I don't think Max really knew what to expect," Richaud said. "He arrived very open. He found himself in a group that made sense for him, with several skaters who also share the same Russian roots, and I truly think that group energy helped him a lot.
 
"From the beginning, I told him there was no need to know exactly where we were going or what we were going to do. I wanted to give him space, so he could feel free in the process. I showed him the way we work, our method, our philosophy, without any pressure. I didn't see an immediate change, but something clearly settled in him. It was the right moment for him to be there, to reconnect with why he is on the ice and what he truly wants to express through his skating."
 
Naumov earned the first senior (top three)  U.S. Championships podium finish of his career with a total score of 249.16. He placed fourth in both the short program and the free skate, scoring 85.72 points and 163.44 points, respectively.
 
They may not've been the cleanest skates he's ever had, but they were enough to get him to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. The men's individual competition begins with the short program on Feb. 10 and concludes with the free skate on Feb. 13.
 
"From day one, his intention was very clear," Richaud said. "I remember very well being in Courmayeur, in the hotel lobby, catching up with him and his manager, and he looked at me and said, 'I want to go to the Olympics.' It was so clear in his mind, with no hesitation, that I simply told him, 'OK, then let's make it happen.'"
 
One of Naumov's last conversations with his parents was about trying to make the Olympic team and what it would take. They said, "Fight. Always keep fighting."
 
That's exactly what he did. Naumov says he surprised himself and is proud of his ability to push through adversity.
 
"These values and the mentality of resilience and pushing through no matter what happens in your life is something that my parents taught me," Naumov said. "So it makes me even more proud to know that when times are incredibly difficult, I was able to step up. In those moments, it's a fight, flight or freeze moment, and being able to still continue and take on the responsibility and take that next step forward has given me more courage and confidence than anything ever in my entire life. This is just more evidence to that, because what I've been able to do through the entire process has culminated to this moment. It's beyond special for me."
 
Making an Olympic team is something Naumov has dreamed of his whole life — his parents, after all, were the 1994 pairs world champions, representing Russia — and he now has to embark on this journey without them.
 
"It's something I think about all the time," Naumov said. "It's a big reason why I brought the picture (into the kiss and cry). I wanted them to be there in whichever capacity they could. I know I feel their presence when I'm skating. They definitely did watch, I know that – a little bit of a different vantage point than us, but they were definitely watching.
 
"It's been something that I had to deal with every single day that I woke up after that day. It's something that's a fact and something that has made me stronger knowing that I can still do the things that I need to do."

For the full competition schedule, television schedule, bios, news and more, visit the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 Competition Central.