Figure skater Maxim Naumov, who grew up skating at the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury where his late parents coached, has advanced to the next round in the men’s short program after making his Olympic debut Tuesday.
Naumov, who skated second, scored an 85.65.
“I didn’t know whether I was going to cry or smile or be happy,” Naumov told NBC after his skate. “All I can do is look up to the sky and say, ‘Look what we just did.’”
Naumov is one of the top 24 skaters who advanced to Friday’s free skate, where medals will be decided.
The 24-year-old, who now lives in Norwood, Mass., lost both of his parents Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova in the plane crash last Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C. His parents were his coaches and dreamed of him going to the Olympics.
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After skating sporadically for a few months, last July, Naumov decided he would try to make the U.S. team and asked his parents’ long-time friends, Vladimir and Elena Petrenko of Simsbury, to coach him and also help him coach the skating programs at the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, which he took over upon his parents’ passing. Vladimir Petrenko, a coach at the International Skating Center of Connecticut, was an Olympic alternate in 1992, the year his brother Viktor won the gold medal.
Tuesday, Naumov told NBC he was calm and felt the presence of his parents when he skated.
“As soon as I hit that first pose, usually my body is shaking really hard in that moment and I tend to rush a lot but this time the ease, the smoothness of everything, the way I was setting up for everything, I felt like someone was just guiding me along the ice as I was going,” he told NBC. “I most definitely felt their presence.”
Naumov, whose family moved from Simsbury to Norwood in 2017, became emotional as he watched the young skaters he coaches from Norwood cheering for him on a video feed. “I love each and every one of you guys,” he said as he waved at the screen.
“The support I feel from my hometown, it just makes my heart so happy,” he told NBC.
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This story is developing and will be updated.