How do you overcome sudden, life-changing grief? That’s the question Maxim Naumov unexpectedly faced two months ago when he lost his parents, two-time Olympians Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, in a plane crash.
The pair, who were returning from a U.S. Figure Skating developmental camp in Wichita, Kansas, where they had been coaching young skaters from their Skating Club of Boston, were among 67 victims of a tragedy in Washington D.C. on 29 January. Of the 67, 28 had ties to figure skating, six of them from the Boston club.
Naumov, himself a top skater who had just finished fourth at the U.S. national championships to win the pewter medal, suddenly found himself without the two most important people in his life. Figure skating suddenly seemed very far away.
On Sunday (30 March), the 23-year-old took to the ice for just the second time since the air accident. Four weeks prior, he’d skated at a fundraising tribute in D.C., battling through tears. This time, he came home to a standing ovation from his city, in the exhibition gala at 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Boston.
Naumov put his hand to his chest over his heart multiple times before and after his routine which left many in the TD Garden audience in tears. But the skater himself held it together. No crying this time. He credited it to finding a way to manage his new-found emotions every time he takes to the ice.
“I’m slowly getting back on the ice,” Naumov told a scrum of TV journalists and written press afterwards, showing remarkable composure despite the multiple cameras trained on him. “At first it was a little bit tricky, understandably so… I think I had a few moments on the ice where [I had] a lot of different feelings and new feelings, new emotions.
“Skating 1743411362 doesn’t feel like a list of things to do – it feels almost… just more freeing, and [I’m] able to tune out the craziness and busyness of my day and my schedule.
“It’s feeling better and better every time that I’m on the ice. I’m getting more and more comfortable with it, and I just want to keep moving in that direction and seeing where it goes. You know, I have never felt my body, my mind, my heart in the place that I am now on the ice.
“And it feels different, but different-good.”
