Maxim Naumov will compete at the Olympics after losing his parents in the Washington, D.C., plane crash.
Before Today heads to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, Craig Melvin sent a special message to one of Team USA’s athletes.
Maxim Naumov from Massachusetts was one of 16 athletes named to Team USA’s ice skating team on Sunday, January 11, after competing at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. In celebration of Naumov’s achievement, Melvin took to Instagram to reminisce on his previous Today interview with the skater.
“So proud of you, @maximnaumov_. Nearly a year after we last spoke, you’ve turned unimaginable loss into extraordinary strength, and now you’re officially headed to Milan as a member of the U.S. Olympic Team,” Melvin captioned a clip of their March 2025 conversation via Instagram on Monday, January 12.
He added, “I know your parents, Vadim and Evgenia, would be bursting with pride watching you carry their legacy onto the ice. Congratulations! Can’t wait to cheer you on. 
Maxim is the son of former Olympians and renowned skating coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova. The couple was among the 67 people killed in the Washington, D.C., plane crash in January 2025. The victims included several coaches, athletes, and their families who were flying home from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
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While waiting to receive his scores at this weekend’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Maxim lovingly held and kissed a photo of his younger self with his late parents. Maxim finished the competition in third place, securing his spot on this year’s Olympic team.
Maxim previously sat down with Melvin for his first TV interview since his parents’ death on Today last March. “My mom let me know that they’re switching flights and [asked] if I could pick them up,” he revealed. “My mom always texts me and calls me soon as they land.”
In their last Instagram post before their death, Vadim and Evgenia congratulated their son on his performance at the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, writing that they were “proud” of him. “It was actually the last thing that they said,” Maxim said to Melvin. “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 asked how he would push through the loss, Maxim said, “The only way out is through. There’s no other way. I don’t have the strength or the passion or the drive or the dedication of one person anymore. It’s three people.”
Former Today host Hoda Kotb chatted with Maxim and the rest of Team USA’s skaters after this weekend’s competition. “I was telling them that we did it. We did it together,” he told Kotb of holding his parents’ picture at the event in a prerecorded segment aired on Monday’s episode of Today. “I would not be here without them, in any capacity.”
The 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics will kick off with the opening ceremony on Friday, February 6.
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Category: General Sports
