MILAN — In a shocking turn of events in men’s figure skating, Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won the gold medal with a total score of 291.58 at the 2026 Winter Olympics. After finishing fifth in the short program with a 92.94, Shaidorov skated a near-perfect free skate that had the crowd on its feet and earned a score of 198.64.
The 21-year-old is the first skater representing Kazakhstan to win an Olympic figure skating title.
Silver and bronze went to a pair of skaters from Japan: Yuma Kagiyama (280.06) and Shun Sato (274.90). Kagiyama was among the many skaters to trip and fall multiple times during the free skate.
The most egregious of those errors came from U.S. superstar Ilia Malinin, who appeared to be a lock for the gold medal after a 108.16 short program and a free skate with an unbeatable technical base score. But Malinin fell twice, didn’t fully execute multiple elements and looked pained throughout his free skate program. He earned just 156.33 for the free skate, giving him an overall score of 264.49, which dropped him to 8th place.
This gold medal was Kazakhstan’s first medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics. The country last medaled in men’s singles in 2014, when the late Denis Ten won bronze.
Shaidorov landed five quadruple jumps to take first place, and fell to the ice at the end of his program — skated to ‘The Diva Dance’ — laying flat on his back with his hands over his face in joy.