What is known about sensational Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov
Tengrinews.kz — Kazakhstani skater Mikhail Shaidorov won the gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Italy in men’s singles figure skating. Tengri Sport рассказывает, what is known about the first Olympic champion in figure skating from Kazakhstan.
After the short program, Mikhail Shaidorov was in fifth place, but his nearly perfect free skate allowed him to score 291.58 points and surpass all his competitors. The second place was taken by Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, and the third place went to another Japanese skater, Shun Sato.
What is known about Mikhail Shaidorov?
The leader of Kazakhstan’s figure skating was born in 2004 in Almaty. As a child, he began practicing sports under the guidance of his father, and in 2018 his coach became Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov.
In 2022, Shaidorov won silver at the World Junior Championships, losing only to Ilia Malinin, and after the short program he had been eighth. Three years later, the story repeated itself at the senior World Championships — Shaidorov won silver, and the American became champion.
In addition, Shaidorov’s record includes a victory at the Four Continents tournament and two gold medals at the Denis Ten Memorial.
Photo: NOK/ Sali Sabirov
It should be noted that Russian media periodically call Shaidorov a “former Russian,” but this information has been denied both by the athlete himself and by national team coach Asem Kasanova.
“I would like to clarify. Misha was born in Almaty, and his father — Stanislav Shaidorov — and other guys trained with the Honored Coach of Kazakhstan — Adolf Kireev — at Sports School No. 6 in Almaty,” she emphasized in an interview with Tengrinews.
Mikhail Shaidorov’s gold is the second in Kazakhstan’s history at the Winter Olympics. The first was in 1994 by skier Vladimir Smirnov.
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