The last conversation that Maxim Naumov had with his parents was about following in their footsteps to the Olympics.
Now the US figure skater has done it.
The 24-year-old Naumov on Friday night finished his Winter Games debut with an emotional free skate, just over a year after Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were among 67 people killed when American Airlines Flight 5342 crashed into a military helicopter on approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport and fell into the dark depths of the Potomac River.
Photo: AFP
It was not a perfect program. Far from it. Naumov fell twice on quad salchows and was uneven throughout.
However, the point total was not the point.
When it came to an end, a crowd packed inside the Milan Ice Skating Arena to see US teammate Ilia Malinin go for gold gave him a standing ovation. Among them was actor Jeff Goldblum, who took in the performance with his wife, Emilie.
“To be honest, I just feel proud,” Naumov said afterward.
“I feel proud of the journey that it took to get to this point. That is what I look toward right now,” he said. “What it took to get here has been indescribable, inwards, getting up every day when I didn’t want to and pushing through the difficult times and the uncertainty of it all. I’m able to have some perspective on that, and I’ve had a lot of perspective in lots of areas in my life this year and skating is no different.”
“So, yes,” Naumov said. “There were some mistakes today, but man, I’m just happy and proud to be standing here today and getting through all the difficulty of this year and still standing on my feet and continuing to push onward.”
His students from Tomorrow’s Champions, the youth academy based at the Skating Club of Boston that was founded by his parents and Naumov now runs, certainly were proud. They had a watch party happening back in the US while a small group sitting above the kiss-and-cry area waved a homemade sign with red and blue lettering that red, “Let’s Go Coach Max!”
“Hey, what’s up guys?” Naumov said upon seeing them, smiling and waving.
Naumov set his free skate to the song In This Shirt by The Irrepressibles, a mournful ballad that delves into the issues of heartbreak and loss that the skater knows so well.
“I am lost in a rainbow,” the lyrics say. “Now our rainbow is gone.”
Naumov had finished fourth at the national championships in Wichita, Kansas, in January last year before heading home to the Boston area, while his parents — world pairs champions-turned-coaches — stayed behind to participate in a youth development camp.
Their plane was carrying more than two dozen members of the tight-knit figure skating community when it crashed.
Naumov said after the accident, he felt like “I just wanted to rot, basically.”
Things such as getting out of bed, answering the door and checking the mail seemed insurmountable chores, and there were moments when he wondered whether he wanted to keep skating at all.
He still finds looking at photographs difficult, including the ones he pulled from a family album tucked above the refrigerator that he brought to the kiss-and-cry area. The idea of looking at videos of his parents still reduces him to tears.
However, in the end, he found purpose in putting on his skates again, Naumov said.
He wanted to fulfill a dream that he shared with his parents by making it to the Olympics; they were fifth at the 1992 Albertville Games and fourth at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
He also wanted to turn an unimaginable tragedy into a story of perseverance and ultimately triumph.
“It’s something that is allowing me to keep pushing forward. Keep moving,” Naumov said.
“You know, continue to go and do things that are difficult no matter what obstacles get thrown at you. Skating is a tool for that. I think we can all do that,” he said. “Whatever life throws at you, if you can be resilient and push just a little bit more than you think, you can do so much more.”
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS