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.

They were among the 67 people who died when a U.S. Army helicopter hit their American Airlines jet, which crashed into the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.. Twenty-eight of those killed were members of the U.S. figure skating community, on their way back from a development camp that followed last year’s national championships in Wichita.

Maxim had left for the family’s home in suburban Boston two days earlier.

At 24, burdened by overwhelming pain, Maxim carried out the plan created by his parents, who emigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia to the United States three years before their son was born.

“Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics,” Maxim said.

He stepped onto the senior-level podium at nationals for the first time, winning the bronze medal.  A day later, he was named along with Ilia Malinin and Andrew Torgashev to the U.S. team that will compete at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. 

“It’s not been perfect by any means, but what I try to think about very frequently is his (father’s) exact words that night,” Maxim said. “I try every day to do that.”

His performance in the free skate was a bit less than he hoped for, with just one quadruple jump rather than the two his father had urged him to try.

“You know, there were mistakes, obviously, but – and I said this earlier - I would fight tooth and nail to get to the end of this program no matter what, and not leave any of the points that I could behind,” Maxim said.

“That’s the mentality I've had ever since I was a kid, and I will continue to have that throughout my entire life. That’s exactly what got me through, the resilience and grit.”

His skating was good enough to move up one place in the overall standings, which shuffled after the short program for everyone but Malinin, who won his fourth straight U.S. title by a whopping 57.26 points.

Tomoki Hiwatashi went from second to fifth, Jason Brown from third to eighth. The upwardly mobile were a nearly-flawless Torgashev, from fifth to second; Naumov; and Jacob Sanchez, just 17, from seventh to fourth.

Naumov learned he was an Olympian late in the morning from U.S. Figure Skating officials, then took part in an exhibition gala that served as the public announcement of the entire U.S. figure skating team.  He held his emotions together until being presented a team jacket as he left the ice.

Each of the new Olympians had a personal quote sewn into the jacket. Maxim’s was a saying his father liked: “Expect the Unexpected.”

“My heart is just so full now,” he said. “It makes me even more proud just to know that when times are incredibly difficult, I was able to step up.”

The sadness that his parents weren’t able to share these triumphant moments is why he brought out pictures of them while waiting for his scores after each program.

“I wanted them to be there, in whatever capacity they could,” Naumov said. “I know I feel their presence when I’m skating.

“They definitely did watch. It was from a little bit of a different vantage point than us.”

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at every Winter Olympics since 1980, is a special contributor to NBCOlympics.com