Maxim Naumov sat silently on a chair deep inside the Enterprise Center, away from the packed crowd in the arena, the prying eyes of the TV cameras, the friends, family and strangers who had been showering him well-wishes for the better part of a year.
Naumov stared at a photograph of him standing alongside his parents, former pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. It was taken when Naumov was about 3, a little tyke trying to find his footing on the ice for the first time. It had been stuck inside a photo album tucked away above the refrigerator in his Connecticut home.
Naumov’s parents, who had been coaches at the renowned Skating Club of Boston, were among 67 people killed — more than two dozen of them members of the figure skating community — when American Airlines Flight 5342 crashed into a military helicopter on approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport and fell into the icy Potomac River on January 29, 2025.
Eleven skaters, four coaches and several of their family members had been returning from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, after the national championships. The younger Naumov had flown out earlier, shortly after finishing in fourth place.
