Figure skater Maxim Naumov is speaking out for the first time following the devastating death of his parents, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were victims of the D.C. plane crash, after an American Airlines jet and an army helicopter collided.
Shishkova and Naumov, Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions, were aboard the American Airlines passenger jet carrying 64 people that crashed mid-air with an army Black Hawk helicopter and plunged into the Potomac River in Washington on Jan. 29.
In an interview with the Today Show, Naumov told host Craig Melvin that his parents were initially scheduled to board a different plane.
“My mom let me know that they were switching flights and if I could pick them up,” Naumov said.
Naumov recalled how he first learned that his parents were aboard the American Airlines plane that crashed, saying, “My mom always texts me and calls me as soon as they land.”
The 23-year-old figure skater also shared his parents’ final words to him, which were full of love and support. He spoke about their last Instagram post, calling their son’s national championship performance “beautiful” and sharing how proud they were.
“It was actually the last thing that they said,” Naumov revealed. “It was actually my mom that called me, and she said, ‘Hey, I just want you to know that we love you and we’re proud of you.’
“It means everything to me. I mean, my whole life, a part of it was to make them proud.”
When Melvin asked Naumov about his grieving process, the figure skater said, “the only way out is through.”
“I don’t have the strength or the passion or the drive or the dedication of one person anymore. It’s three people,” he added.
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Melvin asked Naumov if skating has changed for him since the accident.
“Most definitely. When you’re in such a regimen, such an intense training schedule, essentially I have a list,” Naumov responded. “It doesn’t feel like that anymore. There’s no list. It’s just free. I can just be free on the ice.”
Naumov said he brought that “freedom” to his first performance since the accident when he paid tribute to his late parents at the Legacy on Ice U.S. Figure Skating Benefit at the Capital One arena in D.C. on March 2.
The former U.S. junior champion placed two white roses on a table next to the rink at the beginning of his solo routine. At the end of the emotional performance, Naumov burst into tears while on his knees.
“I skated truly from my heart, like, genuinely,” he said, speaking of the performance. “I wasn’t thinking about the steps. I wasn’t thinking about the jumps or the spins or anything like that. I just let my body go, and I never felt that before.
“I just had such an overwhelming emotion of love in that moment.”
Naumov ended his interview acknowledging that he would “not be the person I am today” without his late parents.
“Their love and their care was evident in each stage of my life. They were always like superheroes to me,” he added.
Naumov competed in the national championships in Kansas the same weekend of the D.C. plane crash. Maxim boarded a flight out of Wichita just days before his parents were killed in the devastating crash.
“Max was competing at the U.S. Championships in the senior men’s event, championship men,” Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said on Jan. 30. “He placed fourth, which is a medalling spot. His time in Wichita concluded on Sunday with the men’s event. He was actually on a plane on Monday. I came back with him. He had no reason to stay at the National Development Camp.”
“Both of his parents were with him while he was competing,” Zeghibe said. “It’s well known his mom was always too nervous to watch him skate. But his dad was with him. His dad was in the kiss-and-cry sharing his great performance.”
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married to each other, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994, and they had lived in the United States since 1998, where they trained young ice skaters.
The couple became well-known skaters after winning the pairs world title in 1994 in Chiba, Japan. The two-time Olympians later moved to the U.S., first as coaches at the International Skating Centre in Connecticut and later at the Skating Club of Boston in 2017.
Ludmila Velikova, who trained Shishkova and Naumov when they were children and who was pivotal to their success, said she was devastated by the news of the plane crash, but relieved that the couple’s son had not been on the same plane.
“They were my favourite sports people. They were part of my first attempt at the world championships and became champions in 1994. They were talented and beautiful people,” Velikova told Reuters.
“Apart from anything else they were my children. Zhenya [Shishkova] trained with me from the age of 11 and Vladik [Naumov] from age 14. They were like my own children. What’s happened is awful. The best people have been taken away from us.”
—with files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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