(NORWOOD, MA--WTIC News) Simsbury native Maxim Naumov fell twice during the pressure-packed free skate at the Winter Olympics in Milan Friday, finishing 20th, but competed with a style that left friends, fans and one very notable observer impressed.
U.S. Olympic great Nancy Kerrigan was the headliner at a watch party for Naumov at the Skating Club of Boston, where she once trained, and where Max now teaches and trains. Kerrigan says she can easily look beyond Friday’s falls to see that there’s lots to be impressed with when it comes to the 24-year-old.
“He’s still a beautiful skater,” says Kerrigan. “He’s emotional out there. He makes you ‘feel,’ which, friends of mine who are judges say, ‘I want you to make me feel,’ and he does that… In our sport, you have to put more than just the technical things out there… He does that, he skates from his heart.”
American favorite Ilia Malinin, 21, also fell twice during his routine, dropping to 8th overall. Again looking past Friday’s rough edges, Kerrigan is sure both men are just getting started:
“Even with mistakes, there’s unbelievably magical moments on the ice. You see something that’s rough, but you will get something else and you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s incredible what they’re doing on the ice.’”
Kerrigan also says the competitors’ falls on the ultimate stage can be useful for aspiring young skaters, adding, “To also see them not be perfect is a great lesson that you don’t give up, that you keep on trying, that you move forward. That’s skating. We fall down all the time, and you get back up and you keep on going.”
Some of those young skaters were around the TV’s in the facility’s club room, watching intently and also looking past Naumov’s fall. Sophie Joline von Felten, 16, a noted skater herself, said, “Just incredible. He fought through his whole program. I really enjoyed watching. I really like his choreography and his program.”
Kerrigan was emotional talking about Naumov’s path of the last year. He returned to skating after his parents and mentors, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, died in last year’s plane crash in Washington, DC:
“The way Max has gone on to represent his country with grace, really… I don’t know how he’s been able to compose himself for the past year and compete at this high level… It’s grit and determination, and he got that instilled in him from the beginning through the sport through his parents.”
“We’re all really proud of Max,” said another young skater, Olivia Tillis. “This hasn’t been an easy year for him. To see him go out and do that, to skate the way we all know that he could, we’re all really proud of him.”