Kazakh figure skater Mikhail Šajdorov won the gold medal in the solo competition at the 2026 Olympics. In Friday’s free ride, he perfectly took advantage of the hesitation of several favorites led by the American Ilio Malinin and triumphed over the Japanese Jumo Kagiyama and his compatriot Shun Sato.
The leader after the short program, Malinin, completely messed up the free ride and fell to eighth place. Slovak representative Adam Hagara took 24th place in his Olympic debut. Two-time world champion Malinin was close to adding a second Olympic gold to his collection after helping the USA win the team competition. After a short program, he was more than five points ahead of Kagijam, the defending silver medalist from the Beijing Olympics.
However, with a disjointed ride full of mistakes and falls, the 21-year-old super-favorite not only lost the gold, but ended up far behind the podium. Thanks to a precise performance in which he included up to five quadruple jumps, his peer Šajdorov rose to the golden step from fifth place after the short program.
