Sawt Falasteen - 'I felt guided by them': US skater Naumov remembers parents at Olympics

"Mom and Dad this is for you," flashed up on the screen at the Milano Ice Skating Arena just before the 24-year-old took to the Olympic ice for the first time.

"From the time that my name was announced in the warm-up to right before I went out for my skate, I felt it. The energy. The roar. It's like a buzz in your body," he said.

"I couldn't help but just embrace it. Embrace that love."

For Naumov, it was a bittersweet experience just over a year after the death of his parents, both former Olympic figure skaters, in a plane crash.

Russian 1994 pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were killed when the plane they were travelling in collided with a military helicopter in Washington DC in January 2025.

Among the 67 dead were 28 members of the US figure skating community, who were returning from the national championships.

Naumov qualified for this first Olympics after finishing third at the US nationals last month.

And hitting all his elements perfectly to Chopin's haunting, melancholic "Nocturne No. 20" earned the young skater his season's best score of 85.65 points and a place in Friday's free skating final.

"I feel like I was just guided today by them," he told journalists afterwards of his parents.

"Feeling their presence. With every glide and step that I made on the ice.

"I couldn't help but feel their support. Almost like a chess piece on a chess board. From one element to another."

With tears in his eyes he finished his routine on his knees, soaking in the cheers of the crowd.

"I didn't know if I was going to cry, smile, or laugh," he said.

"All I could do was just look up and say, 'Look what we just did'. I said it in English and Russian."

- 'Live in this moment' -

After his performance, he held up a photo of himself holding his parents' hands on the first occasion they took him to the ice, aged three.

"I carry them so I never ever forget about it," he explained.

"And they're right here. It's literally here on my chest, on my heart.

"I wanted them to sit in the 'kiss and cry' with me and experience the moment, to look up at the scores and just live in this moment.

"They deserve to be sat right next to me. Like they always have been.

"I just wanted to go out there. And just get my heart out. Leave everything out there. Have no regrets at all.

"And to be able to do it here, on this stage, today and now. I couldn't be more proud of myself and my team."

V.AbuAwwad--SF-PST