It has been a historic few days for Kazakhstan men’s figure skater Mikhail Shaidorov, who entered Friday’s men’s free skate final simply hoping to medal.
But after a remarkable performance — the best of the night by a wide margin, especially following the shocking showing from Team USA’s Ilia Malinin, who was widely expected to win — Shaidorov climbed the leaderboard, earned the highest score, and captured his first Olympic gold.
It was also Kazakhstan’s first gold medal of the Winter Games and only the country’s second gold in Winter Olympics history. The first came all the way back in 1994, cementing Shaidorov’s achievement as a defining moment for both his legacy and his nation.
“I am incredibly grateful to all of Kazakhstan, to all the people who haven’t slept all night cheering for me,” Shaidorov said. “There were so many messages, so much support — I can’t even describe it. There was so much talk about this victory.”
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While revealing he hasn’t slept much over the past few days, Shaidorov shared a photo on Instagram Monday of himself sleeping with his gold medal around his neck — along with a six-word message that quickly went viral on social media.
“Sweet dreams are made of this,” Shaidorov wrote, adding a first-place medal emoji and the Kazakhstan flag on the wall.
Check it out:
Shaidorov handled his victory with remarkable grace, offering praise in every direction — including toward Ilia Malinin, who became the talk of the event after falling twice and struggling on several technical elements.
“When I see him in the future, I will certainly try to comfort him. Ilia is a great athlete, but first and foremost, he is a great person,” Shaidorov said. “I want to support him because we have come up side by side since the junior competitions, and I am incredibly grateful to Ilia and to figure skating for bringing us together.
“We are one big family that not only competes with each other but also brings different people together to grow figure skating. We are developing the sport together, and there will be many competitions in the future where we will continue to do so.”
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