MILAN — The 2026 Olympics will be remembered as an epic, historic failure for American men’s figure skating. As Ilia Malinin was stumbling and misstepping his way through his free skate Friday night at Milano Ice Skating Arena, ultimately delivering the biggest fall of his life — all the way to an eighth-place finish — it guaranteed that Team USA will be analyzing this event for a long, long time.
At least one member of the American men’s team has earned the right to look to the future, and to do so with a breathtakingly positive attitude. That would be the Skating Club of Boston’s Maxim Naumov, who somehow found a way to devote a full year to qualifying for these Olympics — his first — while dealing with unimaginable tragedy. Just over 12 months ago, he lost his parents in that terrible plane crash over the Potomac River; in both his short program and free skate here in Milan, he took the spirit of Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova out to the ice with him.
Now, make no mistake: Naumov, too, submitted a rocky free skate. He was never going to medal anyway, but he was certainly looking for something a little more glamorous than 20th place.
Let’s remember the timing, though, beginning with the fact that Naumov had completed his long program more than an hour before Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan submitted an eye-popping, stop-the-presses free skate of his own. And Naumov had finished skating long before Malinin’s long program quickly dissolved into a long problem, thereby securing surprise gold for Shaidorov.
Everybody in the building was aware of Naumov’s back story. He has been cheered and hugged all the way along, and we all knew it would continue Friday night. And yet this was different, and Naumov could feel it — feel it in his heart, feel it right down to his bones.
“Oh, man,” Naumov said, this when asked about the rousing reception he received after completing his free skate. “Sometimes the crowd becomes a little bit of a blur in the end, because you’re just too stuck in the moment, maybe, or you have little things on your mind.
“But today,” he said, “I was able to just take a second, stay on my feet a little bit, and look around. And it was covered with USA flags. It just makes me feel so proud, honestly, to be able to represent my country on the biggest stage.
“Of course, there’s a couple of things I would have fixed,” Naumov acknowledged, smiling. “But hopefully I can inspire somebody with everything I was able to do here.”
Naumov has been displaying a picture of his parents after his skates ever since their deaths in the January 2025 plane crash over the Potomac River. (Wang Zhao / AFP via Getty Images)
The crowd didn’t cheer Naumov because of what he did at Milano Ice Skating Arena. They cheered him for the way he was able to resurrect his career after taking time off to grieve. They cheered him for the manner in which he performed during the exhibition that was held in Washington D.C. to honor members of the figure skating community who lost their lives when American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a United States Army helicopter. They cheered him for persevering in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, thus earning this trip to Milan.
They cheered him for the continued grace he showed after being suddenly transformed into a public figure. His name has been in the media practically non-stop, and not just because of his decision to display a photo of his parents after each skate. Because of that, he somehow got intertwined in the controversy over Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych getting disqualified from the Olympics for refusing to stop wearing a helmet covered with photos of fellow athletes from his country who have lost their lives trying to beat back the Russian invasion.
“I stayed really focused on what I was planning and thinking about,” Naumov said. “Sometimes I would overthink about what it is that I have to do. But I kind of let my mind be at ease, not concerning myself with a lot of different distractions or anything — anything that’s going on at all. And just be chill and enjoy the moment.”
If anybody in Milan deserves a moment to chill, it’s Max Naumov. And he wasn’t just speaking words. You could see it all over his face. Was he disappointed in his performance? Of course he was. On several occasions, he spoke of how he “made a few bobbles.”
But, he said, “That’s not what it’s all about. “It’s about what it took to get here and the fact that I’m here and I gave everything I possibly could have to that program from the start to the finish.”
And America cheers. Max Naumov is America’s kid brother, the kid you keep an eye on, the kid you support in good times and bad, the kid you kid around with. And so when he struggled last year following the deaths of his parents, America picked him up. When he had those bobbles Friday night, America picked him up again.
Now he reckons he should pay it forward.
When asked, for instance, about developing a mental health platform for athletes, Naumov said, “The campaign is ‘Building Stronger Minds for Younger Athletes.’ It’s actually on my website, maxnaumov.com.”
Imagine that: He even managed to work in the website.
While so many figure skating enthusiasts are going to be obsessing over yesterday, here’s Max Naumov, looking to tomorrow.