Maxim Naumov makes U.S. Olympic team after family tragedy a year ago

While winners from the U.S. figure skating national championships over the weekend in St. Louis had locked up spots to compete in the Winter Olympics, there still was drama in Sunday's announcement of the U.S. Olympic team.

U.S. Figure Skating revealed the 16 athletes to represent the country at the Milan-Cortina Games next month in Italy, including freshly minted men's national champion Ilia Malinin, first-time Olympian Amber Glenn in women's competition and seven-time national titlists Madison Chock and Evan Bates in ice dance.

Maxim Naumov, who finished third behind Malinin's dominant performance on Saturday, has a legacy in the sport that is heartbreaking. His parents, who competed for Russia in two Olympics, were among 67 who died in a commercial plane crash Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, who were world champions in pairs figure skating in 1994, became coaches at the Skating Club of Boston. They were returning from Wichita, Kansas, host of the 2025 U.S. championships, along with 26 others connected to figure skating, when their plane collided with a military helicopter, killing everyone aboard both aircraft.

Maxim Naumov, a 24-year-old from Simsbury, Conn., said he talked with his parents all the time about him following them as an Olympian. On Sunday, he was informed he made the U.S. team.

"I would not be sitting here without the unimaginable work effort and love from my parents," Naumov said in a news conference on Sunday. "It means absolutely everything to me, fulfilling the dream that we collectively had as a family since I first was on the ice at 5 years old. So it means absolutely everything. And I know they're looking down, smiling and proud."

He will compete in men's singles with Malinin, a 21-year-old from Fairfax, Va., who won his fourth consecutive title and will be making his Olympic debut, and Andrew Torgashev, 24, who placed second at nationals.

Glenn, 26, who won her third straight national title, is joined by teammates Alysa Liu, 20, the reigning world champion, and Isabeau Levito, 18, the 2023 national champion.

The married couple of Chock, 33, and Bates, 36, have won five straight national titles and seven overall, a record. They've competed in three previous Olympics together, not having medaled as a duo but earning gold in the team event in 2022 at Beijing.

They are joined by the ice dance teams of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarkenko.

The pairs teams are Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, and Emily Chan and Spencer Howe. The drama came with the exclusion of two-time reigning U.S. titlists Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov. Efimova was born in Finland and was trying to get her U.S. citizenship approved before Sunday's selection deadline so she could compete in the Olympics. The Club of Boston, their home training base, tried to help her and enlisted the assistance of U.S. senators but the deadline passed.

Kam and O'Shea won silver at nationals, and Chan and Howe placed fourth. The third-place pairs team, Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman, also was not considered for the Olympic team because Parkman was born in Russia and does not have a U.S. passport.

The 2026 Winter Games are Feb. 6-22 in Milan and Cortina, Italy.

--Field Level Media