Maxim Naumov makes US Olympic figure skating team 1 year after parents’ tragic death in DC plane crash

street. Louis– World champion Ilya Malinin and ice dance duo Madison Schock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest American figure skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.

Malinin, who just captured his fourth straight national title, will be the favorite to follow in Nathan Chen’s footsteps by delivering another men’s gold medal for the U.S. team when he steps on the ice at the Milan Ice Rink.

Chock and Bates, who won their record seventh U.S. title Saturday night, will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alyssa Liu and her women’s teammate Amber Glenn, who just captured her third straight national title.

USA Figure Skating announced its full 16-athlete lineup for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV ceremony Sunday.

“I am very passionate about the Olympic spirit and the Olympic environment,” Malinin said. “I hope to go for the Olympic gold medal.”

Joining Malinin on the men’s side will be Andrew Torgachev, 24, of Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, 24, of Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled his late parents’ hopes by making the Olympic team.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac Glacier in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps and become an Olympian.

“We certainly did,” Naumoff said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much to our family. It’s what I’ve thought about since I was five years old, before I even knew what to think. I can’t put it into words.”

Chock and Bates helped the Americans win the team gold medal at the Beijing Olympics four years ago, but they finished fourth — one point short of the medals — in the ice dancing competition. They finished nowhere but first in the years that followed, winning three consecutive World Championships and gold in three consecutive Grand Prix Finals.

American silver medalists Emilia Zingas and Vadim Kuklesnik also participated in the dance team, as did Canadians Christina Carrera and Anthony Ponomarenko, who became eligible to participate in the Olympics in November when they became American citizens.

Liu was selected for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring after the Beijing Games. She was exhausted by years of training and competing, but being away seemed to have revitalized the 20-year-old from Clovis, Calif., and she came back to win the first world title for an American since Kimmy Meissner took the podium two decades ago.

Now the groundbreaking Liu will try to help the United States win its first women’s medal since Sasha Cohen in Torino in 2006, and perhaps its first gold since Sarah Hughes’ win four years ago at the Salt Lake City Games.

Her biggest competition, besides the strong Japanese national team, could come from her teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been almost unbeatable over the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.

“This was my goal and my dream, and I feel special because it has come true,” said Levito, whose mother is from Milan.

The pairs of places went to Ellie Kamm and Danny O’Shea, the US silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.

The top American team in the pair, two-time US champions Alyssa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, had hoped that Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite the efforts of the Boston Skating Club, where they train, and the help of U.S. Senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.

“The importance and magnitude of being selected for the Olympic Team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete’s life, and it has such an impact, and even though sometimes there are rules, there is also a human element to it that we have to take into account when we’re making decisions and what’s best going forward in the selection process,” said Matt Farrell, CEO of USA Figure Skating.

“Sometimes these things aren’t easy, and that’s not the fun part,” Farrell said.

But the fun is just beginning for the 16 athletes selected for the powerhouse U.S. team.