WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Maxim Naumov will be competing in his first Winter Olympics.
This achievement comes almost one year after both of his parents died in the Flight 5342 plane crash in Washington, D.C. They had been returning home after participating in the National Development Camp for young skaters that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Naumov’s parents, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were skating coaches and former champion Russian figure skaters. They had won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships, and had competed at the Winter Olympics twice. The two, like many Russian skaters, found a new life as coaches in the U.S. after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This week, Maxim competed at the U.S. Figure Skating Nationals in St. Louis. After his performance that put him in first place at the time, he held up a photo of his parents and him from his childhood.
Maxim told the Associated Press that one of the last conversations he had with his parents was about the Olympics and what it would take to earn a spot on the team…