MOVING & TRAGIC OLYMPIC STORY — U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov just delivered one of the most poignant performances in Winter Olympics history — and he says it wasn’t just his talent on display… it was his late parents literally guiding him from above.

Maxim Naumov holds a picture of his parents after skating in the 2026 Winter Olympics.Credit : WANG Zhao / AFP via Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Maxim Naumov made his Olympic debut on Tuesday night in Milan
The 24-year-old said he felt his “parents guiding” him during his short program at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Naumov qualified for the free skate program on Friday

Maxim Naumov felt a calmness that he hadn’t felt before when he made his Olympic debut on Tuesday night.

In front of a boisterous crowd, the 24-year-old had one of the best short program performances of his life, thanks to a stillness he felt was his parents, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, looking over him, a year after they tragically died in the D.C. plane crash.

“Usually I’m a little jittery and kind of — I rush a little bit — and I felt none of that here,” Naumov told reporters, including PEOPLE, after his performance on Tuesday, Feb. 10. “The calm, the stillness, the confidence. I tried to lean as much into that as I possibly could.”

Naumov, who was given a score of 85.65 and has qualified for the free skate on Friday, attributed the feeling to his parents, who were also his coaches.

Maxim Naumov at the 2026 Winter Olympics.Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty

“I felt almost like a hand on my back pushing me forward and, just feeling my parents guiding me, from one element to another and just kind of keeping me grounded, almost like a chess piece on a chessboard from one element to another, but it was unlike any other feeling I’ve ever felt before,” he said.

The bronze medalist at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships also credits the fan support over the last year in helping him succeed.

“The support and the presence from everyone that’s been supporting me through the entire season, it all played a factor. All the prayers and the thoughts, I really do feel it, and I felt it throughout the entire thing,” Naumov said. “It’s almost like I closed my eyes and I opened them again and I was on my knees at the end and just looking up and saying, ‘Man, look what we just did.’ “

When asked how he thinks his parents would have reacted, Naumov couldn’t help but smile.

“I know for a fact that my mom wouldn’t have been here watching, that’s for sure,” he said, grinning. “She never liked to watch me in person. She would always be refreshing the scores thing and making sure that she’s on top of it, but nervous out of her mind, but supporting me in her own way always.”

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His dad, on the other hand, “Would be right next to me and give me the biggest hug and just say I’m proud of you,” Naumov said.

Naumov will now wait to see how the rest of the night shakes out for the men’s figure skaters, including for his Team USA teammates Andrew Torgashev and Ilia Malinin. He’ll spend the next two days preparing for his free skate on Friday night — something he thinks his dad would have reminded him of tonight.

“[He would be] saying the job’s not finished and when we have a goal as a family on our minds, there’s nothing that’s going to stop us from getting there,” Naumov said.