“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” — Hebrews 12:11

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Maxim Naumov wasn’t a name most people were familiar with outside the sport of figure skating until a little more than a year ago. Now a bronze medalist from the 2026 U.S. Nationals and a member of Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Naumov has found himself in an unlikely situation that launched him onto the world stage.

Around the time of the Olympics, he expressed his personal philosophy on training — one that has been born out of the deepest loss and applied to way more in his life than just jumps and choreography on the ice: “The most difficult time in your training is the best time in your training,” he said, “because it is the best opportunity for you to be better.”

Naumov had to put that truth into practice the hard way when he received word that both his parents — former Russian pairs figure skating champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, who had immigrated to the United States back in the 1990s — had tragically lost their lives on American Airlines Flight 5342 that collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025.

An only child, Max’s life was instantly changed forever. Suddenly, he found himself an orphan with a skating academy to run that his parents had started, and an Olympic dream he was training for now in jeopardy due to him being without a coach, as both of his parents were his coaching team. Hearts broke the world over as he had to now face and live out his grief publicly due to the situation he was faced with.

And yet, Naumov made the choice to see the plan through in memory of his parents. Resuming his Olympic training a few months later, he also seized the opportunity to talk about mental health and grief, launching his own athlete support initiative shortly after going to the Olympics. Producing two beautiful programs at the Games, Naumov proved that the hardest times in your life can also be the ones that make you stronger. That you get to decide whether or not tragedy and pain will have the last word in your story.

No goals are attained without suffering and sacrifice of some kind accompanying them. And, in our world of many comforts and conveniences, it can be difficult to accept that the important things worth achieving often bring discomfort with them. And yet, one look at the example of Jesus reminds us that there is no victory without pain (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus went to the cross knowing the path to triumph lay in the wounds.

Perhaps this is a reminder to us that the most painful times in our lives, or the ones that demand the most sacrifice, are precisely the ones that matter the most. They present us with an opportunity to grow and mature so that we “may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).

— Katherine Singer

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