Following his late father's plan, Maxim Naumov became an Olympian

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Following his late father's plan, Maxim Naumov became an Olympian

ST. LOUIS, Missouri - A year ago, barely hours after Maxim Naumov had finished a frustrating fourth at the U.S. Championships for a third straight time, his father, Vadim, laid out a plan for his son to avoid that frustration again.

Maxim and his mother, Evgenia Shishkova, listened in a Wichita, Kansas hotel room as Vadim outlined in a 45-minute conversation what, how and when they were going to do everything in the ensuing season to give their only child his best shot at both a podium finish and one of the three men’s singles spots on the 2026 U.S. Olympic team.

"He said, 'We have to be consistent where we haven’t been before, and we have to be strong and resilient,’’’ Maxim said. "That’s exactly what I’ve been carrying through this entire season.”

It was one of the last conservations he would have with his parents, the two-time pairs skating Olympians for Russia who were also his coaches.

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Amber Glenn aims to defend Grand Prix Final title, free of fear

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Amber Glenn aims to defend Grand Prix Final title, free of fear

The old Amber Glenn might have come undone by what happened during the six-minute warmup for the short program at the Finlandia Trophy Grand Prix event.

Glenn competed in Finland just eight days after undergoing a root canal procedure. And she still was getting antibiotics for a sinus infection that had lingered since summer, with the medicine making her feel tired.

And then she popped her two attempts at her most difficult jump, the triple Axel, in the warmup. Popping – doing a single rotation rather than three - can shake any figure skater’s confidence.

About 45 minutes later, Glenn took the ice for her short program, opened by nailing the triple Axel and went on to win that phase of the competition with her season-best score.

“That was 100% the new Amber,” said Damon Allen, her coach, via telephone.

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A season of tragedy and triumph for U.S. figure skaters

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A season of tragedy and triumph for U.S. figure skaters

The figure skating season that ended nine days ago at the World Team Trophy in Japan was one of overwhelming tragedy and historic triumph for Team USA.

The tragedy happened Jan. 27, when 28 members of the U.S. figure skating family were among the 67 people who died in a crash between their plane and a military helicopter near Washington, D.C.

Among the 28 with ties to the skating community were 11 young skaters, plus some of their parents and coaches, all returning from a development camp following the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas.

At that point, with a pall hanging over them and hearts heavy with pain, the top U.S. skaters still had nearly three months left in the season, with three championship events left:  Four Continents, World Championships and World Team Trophy.

For nearly all of them, going back to practice was both incredibly difficult and necessary, as the U.S. elite sought ways to honor the memories of those who had died by honoring the sport they all loved with their best efforts.

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Jason Brown tries to reboot his Boston story at World Figure Skating Championships

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Jason Brown tries to reboot his Boston story at World Figure Skating Championships

Jason Brown and his coach, Tracy Wilson, came up with a four-year plan for his competitive skating future a few months after the 2022 Winter Olympics, where Brown had a strong sixth-place finish with personal best scores for the short program and total.

They designed a rather unconventional approach to keep Brown mentally fresh and physically healthy for a run at the 2026 Olympics, where he could become, at age 31, the sixth-oldest Olympic men’s singles competitor in the last 90 years.

The idea was that Brown would do a minimal number of competitions in the 2023 and 2024 seasons and spend relatively little time training in Toronto, staying fit by doing lots of show skating. Then he would do a full competitive schedule this season (fall of 2024 through spring 2025), testing how that worked before following a similar schedule in the upcoming Olympic season.

On the surface, it all went well the first two seasons, with Brown finishing second at both the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Championships and fifth at both the 2023 and 2024 World Championships.

But as Brown looked forward to the 2025 World Championships, at the Boston arena where he had not skated since a career-defining moment at nationals in 2014, the metaphorical wheels – his skates - came off after having wobbled the previous two seasons.

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For figure skating family, plane crash has unimaginable link to past tragedy

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For figure skating family, plane crash has unimaginable link to past tragedy

I did not know any of the members of the U.S. figure skating family who died in Wednesday’s tragic accident involving an American Airlines plane and a military helicopter.

Yet I am among those who deeply mourn for them.

Figure skating in the United States is an extended family that includes journalists, despite our best (and necessary) efforts to keep the appropriate relative distance from people we write about so that we can tell the stories that need to be told.

In none of the other sports I covered on a regular basis have I found athletes, coaches and officials as accessible, open-hearted and helpful as in figure skating.

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