"We did it," says the 24-year-old figure skater who has secured one of the U.S. men's spots on the figure skating squad.
Parents Yevgeniya Shishkova and Vadim Naumov won gold in pair skating at the 1994 World Championships while competing for Russia. In January of last year, the figure skating coaches were aboard a plane that crashed after colliding with a military helicopter shortly before landing in Washington, D.C.
During one of their last conversations, the family talked about what it would take for their son to be able to follow in his parents' footsteps and become an Olympic skater.
"Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family," says Maxim Naumov after this weekend's bronze at the U.S. Championships.
A total of 67 people died in the crash, including a dozen young figure skaters who were on their way home from a talent camp in Kansas.
Some of them were clubmates of prodigy Ilia Malinin, 21. Two-time World Cup gold medalist Ilia Malinin has also been selected for the Olympics in Milan in February after winning the U.S. Championships.
