Maxim Naumov lost his parents at the aircraft accident in Washington. At a tribute gala in the Capitol One Arena, the 23-year-old runs to the favorite song of the former world champion couple-15,000 people cry with him.
When the last tone of the music gently fades, Maxim Naumov sags on the ice and sobs bitterly.
15,000 people in the Capitol One Arena rise from her sitting and crying with the young figure skaters, whose life shared in front of Washington and one after that in the fatal aircraft accident.
His parents Jewgenia Schischkowa and Wadim Naumow, the 1994 couple champions, sat in the American Airlines machine, who sank into the icy floods of the Potomac after a collision with a military helicopter on January 29.
The event, which was launched by the two Olympic champions Kristi Yamaguchi (1992 Albertville) and Brian Boitano (1988 Calgary), Legacy on Ice in Washington intended in highly emotional sacrifices of the disaster.
Event for the disaster victims
A total of 67 people lost their lives, 28 of them from the closely connected figure skating scene in the USA. “We want to honor the victims and give their relatives a little comfort,” said Yamaguchi. And a bit of money: a total of $ 1.2 million came together to help destroyed families with coping with the new situation at least from financial needs.
Maxim Naumov is the final runner of the event, with two white roses in his hand, he enters the stadium. He puts them on a small altar with flowers and candles on the edge of the ice surface, then his program begins “The city that never existed”, the song that his parents loved so much.
“Whenever they heard the first tones, they slowly started dancing together,” says Naumov in a tearful voice. He keeps stretching out both hands on the ice, as if he wanted to capture the ones that are no longer with him.
The legacy of Naumwo’s parents
Jewgenia Schischkowa and Wadim Naumow, like so many of their Russian compatriots, had settled in the USA after the end of their runner career and have been passing on their knowledge as a trainer in the renowned Skating Club of Boston.
Son Maxim was born in Boston in 2001, he owns US citizenship and starts for the United States. On that fatal January 29, Schischkowa and Naumow were on the return flight from a training camp of young runners in Wichita. Son Maxim was also there for a few days, but he decided to go home, which saved his life. “It starts now,” he said: “How exactly, I don’t know.”
In a never -ending applause from the ranks, all runners form a circle around Maxim Naumov after his emotional performance. It holds a thick white candle with both hands high above his head and gently places it on the small altar.
“I have no words for what is happening here,” he says in a brittle voice: “Your love and your sympathy will carry me through the future, step by day, step by step. Mom and dad, I love you. “