Last week was pretty heavy news-wise with the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the protests in Iran, and the shooting of leftist agitator Renee Good in Minneapolis, so let’s the start the new week off with some heartwarming news. American figure skater Maxim Naumov, who lost both of his parents – who were also his coaches – in the January 29, 2025 mid-air collision over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is on his way to the Winter Olympics.
Naumov came in third in this weekend’s U.S. figure skating championships being held in St. Louis, Missouri, making him one of the 16 Americans making up the 2026 Olympic team headed to the Winter Olympics in Italy. He placed behind U.S. champion Ilia Malinin and runner-up Andrew Torgashev.
Dream come true ✨
Maxim Naumov is headed to his first Winter Olympics.#MTUSA pic.twitter.com/3HOIdNR99T
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) January 11, 2026
Naumov’s parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, were former world champions in pairs figure skating and represented Russia in the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics. They moved to the United States a few years later to coach at the Skating Club of Boston. They were with their son last January at the 2025 U.S. championship in Wichita, Kansas; he left after the end of the competition, but his parents stayed on a few extra day to attend some workshops.
His parents stayed longer to attend a developmental camp. En route home, their American Airlines flight to Washington collided in midair with a military helicopter over Washington’s Potomac River. The crash killed 67 people, 28 of them athletes, coaches or parents connected to U.S. figure skating.
This is the crash involving an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a night time training mission from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and a commercial airliner making a standard approach to Reagan National Airport. As RedState has previously reported, preliminary reports from the National Transportation and Safety Board indicate the Black Hawk was flying at too high a level, putting it on a collision course with the passenger jet. The two aircraft collided and plunged into the icy waters of the Potomac River. There were no survivors.
BREAKING: New Details Emerge About Actions of Black Hawk Pilots in Deadly DC Mid-Air Collision
Maxim Naumov was seen this week clutching a photograph of him as a child with his parents. “I thought of them immediately,” Naumov said Sunday, according to U.S. Figure Skating. “I wish they could be here to experience it with me, but I do feel their presence, and they are with me.”
Maxim Naumov takes third at the U.S. National Championships with a combined score of 249.16. 🥉 pic.twitter.com/XDXuc0kXZP
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) January 11, 2026
In recalling the difficulties of the past year, Naumov recounted how far he had come since “not being able to lace up my skates and not knowing if I was going to compete” following the tragic deaths of his parents.
“I came into this competition thinking how grateful I am to even have the ability to compete and the fact that I overcame so, so much,” Naumov told reporters Saturday. “Looking back, even not being able to lace up my skates and not knowing if I was going to compete, let alone skate, what I did [Saturday] — I don’t even have the words, honestly, of just what I had to overcome to be here.”
The 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina will begin February 6 and run through February 22.
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.
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