A little more than a year ago, Maxim Naumov was convinced his skating career was over.
Frustrated with a nagging injury that kept him off the ice for most of the 2021-22 season, the 22-year-old had come to a crossroads.
"There were a lot of things that were going on and one of the biggest was my ankle injury," he said. "It has been bothering me for a long time and at that point it was about five years of chronic pain. I had four surgeries to try to correct the problem, so it was not the most fun process. I wasn't able to do pick jumps or anything that carried a heavy load on that ankle, which made things feel stagnant."
Naumov was also butting heads with his parents, 1994 World Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who served as his primary coaches throughout his career. With his motivation at an all-time low, the 2020 U.S. junior champion decided that it was time to step away from the ice.
"Our relationship wasn't the best at that point, and I wasn't mature enough kind of to step up to where it needed to be," he shared. "It was hard to separate coaches from parents, I think, and it was affecting all of us negatively. At that point I had to decide what's more important to me — my family or skating and I chose my family for sure."
With his competitive career seemingly in the rearview mirror, Naumov began to spread his wings and explore life, at least partially, outside of the rink. When he was not wearing the apron of a Starbucks barista, Naumov was maintaining a connection to the sport, assisting his parents with their coaching duties. Soon, he began assisting 2005 U.S. pairs champion Garrett Lucash with his stable of students and was given the opportunity to showcase his skills as a coach.
"I was lucky enough to be invited to a jump camp as a coach and I remember seeing Jimmy (Ma), Camden (Pulkinen) and Amber (Glenn), and they asked me what I was demonstrating," he recalled. "I told them that I wasn't demonstrating and was there as a coach and they looked at me like I was crazy. Standing behind the boards for those two days made something click inside of me that made me realize that I was standing on the wrong side of the boards."
It was a pivotal moment that helped Naumov to realize that his passion for the sport was still in full bloom. As a result, the Massachusettsan decided to end his seven-month hiatus from training and lace up his skates once again. With minimal training time under his belt, Naumov decided to test out the waters and enter a competition that turned the heads of the U.S. Figure Skating international selection committee.
"I was just taking it day by day and I remember we did some small competition when I kind of got my jumps together and then all of a sudden, bang. (U.S. Figure Skating) assigned me to two Challenger Series events," he said. "I was like, 'Wow, okay. Let's see where this goes,' and then all of a sudden, I'm at the U.S. Championships."
Back on competition ice at the Challenger Series, Naumov earned a pair of top-five finishes at Budapest Trophy and the Warsaw Cup, reinforcing his decision to return to the ice. At the 2023 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California, he secured a place on the podium with the pewter medal, which earned Naumov a trip to the ISU Four Continents of Figure Skating Championships 2023 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He ended up notching a top-10 finish in his first trip to the event.
With his season complete, Naumov marched into the summer months hungry for more. With a fresh perspective and the relationship with his family in a much better place, Naumov is now taking control of his skating and personal life. To start, he has hired Lucash as his primary coach, though he still works with his parents on a regular basis. He has moved out of the family home and shares a place with 2023 U.S. pairs silver medalist Spencer Howe.
"We always find something fun to do," he said. "Sometimes it is something small like getting groceries that is away from skating and gets your mind off things. These little things that sometimes can be taken for granted really give that balanced perspective away from the ice."
As his 2023-24 season debut approaches, Naumov has been too busy to set this season's goal in concrete. However, as his first international event of the season, next week's Nepela Memorial in Bratislava, Slovakia, Naumov is seeking to demonstrate that he is a consistent and reliable competitor.
"I have to work on my international ranking, which I hope to improve by putting out strong performances," Naumov shared. "It's no secret that athletes are already thinking about the Olympics in a few years and if I am able to show consistency, I think that will help my case for selection. I may not be doing the craziest content — like 10 quads or whatever, but my goal is for every element to be well done."
Naumov will also compete at next month's Humana Skate America competition in Allen, Texas, in what will be his Grand Prix debut outside of his eighth-place finish in the COVID-19 restricted event back in the fall of 2020.
"I've really focused a lot of the offseason on improving my components and cleaning up my technical elements," he said. "Right now, my programs have a similar technical content as they did last season, but I have really worked to try to earn higher grade of execution scores. I would love to skate clean at Skate America, but I really want to show my new artistry and new approach to choreography. I have no expectations of placement — I just want to be as consistent as possible."
Naumov has elected to keep his "Glimpse of Us" (Joji) short program from last season but has a new free skate to Puccini's three-act opera "Tosca." Both programs were choreographed by Disney on Ice veteran Adam Blake.
"Tosca is one of the most beautiful pieces ever, and in my opinion, I really feel like I have to step it up," he said. "This is a piece that I have wanted to skate to for a long time, but I was encouraged to save it for when I was a bit more mature. My old skating was not cutting it, so taking time to really work with my mom and Adam has been very good for me. I have been working on my expression and artistry, and honestly, I am learning how to just slow things down. I mean, skating fast is good but rushing things is not, so I am trying to slow things down to make more of an impact when it is called for."
Naumov has planned to include his trademark quadruple Salchow in his programs at the start of the season and is working to add a second quadruple — a toe loop — to the mix as the season progresses.
"There is a lot of improvements that can be made even if the technical content is the same," the Arizona State University online student said. "There are small things like putting the jumps in different places, holding the landings for a bit longer or adding features in and out of the jumps that can really improve the grade of execution score. Jason Brown is a good example of what you can do if you work on the quality of each element."
With his top-five finish at the U.S. Championships earlier this year, Naumov has earned a bye into the 2024 U.S. Championships in Columbus, Ohio, in January. He is hoping to perform well enough to secure a third invitation to an international event in the late fall and to extend his season beyond the U.S. Championships.
"I am focusing on the things that are within my control — how I perform, showing consistency and improving from one competition to the next," he said. "If I can block out all of the other noise, it will give me the best advantage to do well and to accomplish what I set out to do."
To follow along as Maxim Namov makes his season debut this weekend at the Nepela Memorial, visit the Challenger Series Competition Central. Then catch Maxim Naumov at 2023 Humana Skate America. To purchase tickets, visit 2023skateamerica.org.
