2026 U.S. Figure Skating Olympic Team Reveal

U.S. Figure Skating

Vote

The 7th Annual Awards

Nominee ✨

• Best Athlete Storytelling

Share

ABOUT THIS ENTRY

For the last 25+ years, figure skating's highest honor of making the Olympic team was delivered through impersonal text messages or emails, usually received alone with no one there to share. For the first time in U.S. Figure Skating's history, we broke from tradition and surprised athletes, their coaches and families with their Olympic team notifications in person, filming their raw reactions to share with fans

How does this represent "Excellence in Engagement"?

Our fans have invested years following these athletes' journeys through triumphs, setbacks, and everything in between. They deserved to experience the payoff alongside the athletes, not as an afterthought. This was honoring the relationship between athletes and the community that supports them, including bringing their families in to celebrate this pinnacle moment. The series received over 2.3 million views across our social platforms.

 

Maxim Naumov's Olympic team notification video is athlete storytelling at its purest: raw, honest, emotionally resonant, and profoundly human. It's a story that will outlive this Olympic cycle because it speaks to something universal: the human capacity to rise after falling, to honor those we've lost by continuing what they loved, and to find triumph even in the shadow of tragedy.

Objective

For the last 25+ years, figure skating's highest honor of making the Olympic team was delivered through impersonal text messages or emails, usually received alone in hotel rooms. Athletes experienced their life-defining moments in isolation.

For the first time in U.S. Figure Skating's history, we broke from tradition and surprised athletes, their coaches and families with their Olympic notifications in person, filming their raw reactions to share with fans. While the entire series resonated deeply, Maxim Naumov’s video transcended sports storytelling entirely, becoming a story about human resilience. On January 29, 2025, American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a military helicopter over Washington D.C., killing all aboard, including Olympic figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. They were renowned coaches, beloved members of the skating community, and the parents of 23-year-old competitive skater Maxim Naumov. For twelve months, our audience witnessed Maxim’s journey through grief, his decision to persevere, and his fight to honor his parents' legacy. When he delivered career-defining performances at the 2026 U.S. Championships that earned him his first Olympic team spot, almost exactly one year after losing his parents, the entire skating community came together to celebrate the power of perseverance through unimaginable loss.

Strategy & Execution

Our approach centered on three pillars:

Authentic Intimacy: No scripts, no staged reactions. Just the athletes, their coaches and families, and raw emotion in real-time as dreams became reality.
Real-Time Storytelling: Rapid content turnaround allowed us to post notification videos on Instagram as each athlete was publicly announced during the Making Team USA event, creating a simultaneous behind-the-scenes/front-of-house experience.
Platform-First Distribution: Social-first mentality with Instagram leading the narrative, followed by strategic distribution to TikTok, X, Facebook, and YouTube, plus NBC broadcast integration for maximum reach.

Organizations

• U.S. Figure Skating

  Two Circles

Featured

• Maxim Naumov

  Amber Glenn
  Isabeau Levito
  Alysa Liu

  Ilia Malinin
  Andrew Torgashev

  Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe
  Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea

  Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko
  Madison Chock and Evan Bates
  Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik

Credits

Kara Raney
Content Strategy
U.S. Figure Skating

Jack Ginsburg
Video Manager
U.S. Figure Skating

Annie White
Chief Commercial Officer
U.S. Figure Skating

Lindsay Toia
Social Media Manager
U.S. Figure Skating

Cassie Florido
Producer
Two Circles

Evan McInnis
Video Editor
Two Circles

Justin Hugge
Video Shooter
Two Circles

Celebrate in NYC

Join us for the 7th Annual Hashtag Sports Awards™ on the evening of June 24, 2025 as we celebrate finalists and reveal the winners of this year's awards live during the show.