United States figure skater Maxim Naumov delivered an emotional performance in his Olympic debut on Tuesday, honoring his late parents who died in a tragic plane crash last year.

There wasn’t a dry pair of eyes at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Tuesday night, as Naumov fulfilled a dream he had alongside his parents, former pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were among the 67 people killed when a military helicopter collided midair into American Airlines Flight 5342 in Washington D.C. in January 2025.

Naumov, 24, was expected to be a long shot to even crack the top 10 at this year’s Olympics, let alone medal. But he delivered quite the show that resulted in a full standing ovation, as he looked up at the sky and said, “Look at what we’ve done,” per ESPN.

“I didn’t know if I was going to cry, smile or laugh,” Naumov said after his short program resulted in a score of 85.65 — good for 12th and having him qualify for the next round.

Naumov skated to “Nocturne No. 20,” and he couldn’t have been happier with his performance, knowing his parents were with him in spirit.

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“I’ve been inspired by them since day 1, ever since we stepped on the ice together,” Naumov, who was holding an old photo of himself and his parents on the ice together in the kiss-and-cry zone after dedicating his performance to them.

Naumov’s parents were among a contingent of U.S. figure skaters, coaches and family members who tragically passed away from the crash after leaving a developmental camp in Wichita, Kansas after the 2025 national championships. Naumov was on an earlier flight.

Three days before being named to the U.S. Olympic team, Naumov was emotional after skating in their honor at the U.S. Championships, where he held up the same picture of himself as a 3-year-old boy with his parents on either side of him.

“Sharing the vulnerability with the audience and me feeling their energy back has been something I remember for the rest of my life,” Naumov said to reporters after his skate that solidified his spot on the U.S. team. “It’s what my parents and I — one of our last conversations was about exactly that, and you know, it would mean the world to me to do that. That’s what we’re fighting for.”

As he took the ice, Naumov said that being too technical about his performance wasn’t the thought process.

His effort level was all that mattered — no matter the result.

“I wasn’t thinking about executing anything perfectly or anything like that. I wanted to go out there and just give my heart out. Leave everything out there. Have no regrets. And that’s exactly what I felt,” he said, per ESPN.

Naumov will perform again during the men’s free skate on Friday night.

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MILAN — The hockey group-play game between the U.S. and Canada at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games on Tuesday was both meaningless and vitally important.

For the record, the U.S. breezed to a 5-0 win behind two goals from Hannah Bilka, a goal and two assists from Carolina Harvey and three assists from Abbey Murphy. It was another complete, methodical performance, one that saw the U.S. score in every period for a fourth straight game while shutting out an opponent for a third straight time, running its shutout streak to 151 minutes.

But because both teams had already qualified for the next round, the only thing the result determined was positioning for the quarterfinals, with the U.S. (4-0) earning the top seed out of Group A.

Yet the game was also important because it was the U.S. and Canada, a rivalry that once stood alongside Coke-Pepsi, Dodgers-Giants and paper vs. plastic as one of the greatest ever. But is it waning?

The U.S. entered the Milan-Cortina Winter Games ranked first in the world, Canada is second. Canada has won five of the seven previous Olympic tournaments, the U.S. won the other two.

But the Americans have won seven games in a row over their northern neighbors, dating to last April’s world championships, and many of those games, like Tuesday’s, weren’t really close.

So is it still a rivalry? Or has it become a rout?

Canada, which figures to meet the U.S. again in the knockout round, is sticking with the former.

“I don’t think you read too much into it,” Canadian captain Brianne Jenner said. “Sometimes games like that happen and it’s hard to put a finger on what it was. But I don’t think we’re lacking any inner confidence.”

The Americans, meanwhile, stayed on their best, most humble behavior afterward, trying not to poke the wounded bear.

“Every time we get to hit the ice against them, it’s an honor and a privilege,” defender Cayla Barnes said. “We have nothing but respect for them. And every time, we know it could go either way.”

Well, not lately. But Barnes said the U.S. dominance has been a process that has spanned years, not just seven games.

“This is four years in the making,” she said. “We’ve been putting together a collection of games, a collection of players, building some chemistry and a lot of trust and a lot of faith in each other. So I think that’s what you’re seeing here.

“[We] understand what we’re capable of and continue to put our foot on the gas and just play our way. There’s always something that we can get better at.”

The U.S. was on the gas from the start Tuesday, taking its earliest lead of the tournament on Harvey’s goal 3:45 into the first period. Murphy set up the next one, sending a behind-the-back pass from the end boards to the front of the net for a wide-open Bilka for the goal with less than three minutes left in the first period.

The U.S. made it 3-0 on a disputed goal 81 seconds into the second period with the referees, after a long review, ruling that Kirsten Simms had pushed the puck through a mass of bodies in the crease and across the goal line. Canadian coach Troy Ryan challenged the goal but lost, earning a bench minor for delay of game.

Bilka got her second goal a dozen minutes later before Laila Edwards closed out the scoring midway through the final period. By then Ryan had changed goaltenders, replacing Ann-Renee Desbiens with Emerance Maschmeyer, who stopped the bleeding over the final eight minutes.

For the U.S., it was a dominant performance — but one that ended with the final whistle. A different Canada, the Americans know, looms in the next round.

“We’re super hungry after this,” forward Julia Gosling said. “We’re very disappointed so we want to come out learn from it. And yeah, next time we see them, we’re going to be very prepared.”

Canada could certainly be a different team personnel-wise since it played Tuesday without its captain, Marie Phillip-Poulin. She left Monday’s game with Czechia after taking a heavy hit along the boards that left her unable to put weight on her right leg. The three-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion was listed as day-to-day.

Until that rematch, expect the U.S. to walk softly while carrying big hockey sticks. Because rivalries never truly die and this one’s not about to fade away.

“Our coaches say the same thing: never [get] too high, never [get] too low,” U.S. forward Taylor Heise said. “They’re gonna hate us even more than they already do if we end up meeting them again.”

A massive brawl broke out between the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons on Monday night, leading to four ejections in a wild third-quarter scene.

Hornets players Moussa Diabate and Miles Bridges, as well as Pistons’ Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart, were all ejected from the game.

The incident began when Duren was backing down Diabate in the paint, and the latter fouled the former with around seven minutes to play in the third quarter. But the two immediately got in each other’s face, with Diabate pressing his head against Duren, which set everything off.

Duren shoved Diabate’s face, and despite people on both sides trying to alleviate the tension, the usually mild-mannered Diabate kept trying to find Duren again.

Pistons veteran Tobias Harris was holding back Diabate, when the latter threw a punch at Duren, escalating the whole situation. As Duren walked away, Bridges got involved, throwing his own left-handed punch at Duren. The Pistons forward retaliated with his own punch.

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Then, with many on the court at this point, Stewart came rushing off the Pistons’ bench to confront Bridges, throwing a punch as their altercation became the focal point of the madness on the hardwood.

The tense scene finally dissipated, but the ejections didn’t stop after that. In the fourth quarter, Hornets coach Charles Lee was tossed from the game and needed to be held back after screaming at officials following a no-call when his player, Grant Williams, collided with Pistons’ Paul Reed.

The Pistons ended up winning the game, 110-104, to add to their Eastern Conference-best 39-13 record. The Hornets fell to 25-29, which sits them 10th in the conference.

Ejections in the NBA usually lead to discipline, so it will be interesting to see what the league office determines is proper punishment for this heated moment on Monday night.

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