Kazakh Mikhail Shaidorov unexpectedly won the gold medal in men’s figure skating at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, this Friday (13). The big favorite, American Ilia Malinin, suffered two falls and ended up out of contention for the title.
Japanese Yuma Kagiyama took silver, while his compatriot Shun Sato took bronze, in a night marked by mistakes among the main competitors, who had difficulties executing their jumps.
After the race, Malinin stated that the pressure of reaching the Games as a favorite and the strong media attention on his Olympic debut were “difficult to bear”.
“I’m trying to understand exactly what happened, but it already happened. I can’t change the result,” said the skater. “I think a lot of people would like to go back and change the results of their career.”
Shaidorov, 21 years old, the same age as Malinin, is known for the high technical difficulty of his programs. He himself fell during his performance at the Milan Ice Skating Arena, but ended up benefiting from the mistakes of his direct rivals.
In one of the biggest surprises in the sport, the victory guaranteed Kazakhstan its first medal in figure skating at the Olympic Games.
