Golden Cascade

These competitions are the third most important after the Olympic Games and the World Championship. Among Kazakhstanis, Denis Ten won this event in 2015. And Elizabet TURSYNBAYEVA won silver in 2019. And here is another Kazakhstani triumph!

Mikhail Shaidorov became a household name in 2022, when he unexpectedly won a silver medal at the World Junior Championships. The following season, Mikhail came in third at the Grand Prix in China. And the year 2025, which has only just begun, has already become the best in his career. He took fourth place at the World Universiade in Turin and won bronze at the Asian Games in Harbin.

Probably, before the start of the Four Continents Championships, Shaidorov would have been happy with third place. But after a brilliant performance of the short program, where he cleanly executed all the ultra-si elements (two quadruple jumps, including a lutz - in a cascade), his plans regarding a place on the Seoul podium changed noticeably. Having scored 94.74 points, he was ahead of everyone, including American Jimmy MA (82.52) and Japanese Kazuki TOMONO (79.84). Such a large gap from his competitors allowed the Kazakhstani to seriously think about gold.

Mikhail performed his free program even better. Although there was a hitch with the music before his performance. The Kazakh athlete was given someone else's composition. He had to sort out this misunderstanding. But this did not affect Shaidorov's mood in any way. Having performed four quadruple jumps, including the triple axel-Euler-quadruple salchow cascade that has already become his signature, Mikhail received 190.37 from the judges (this is the best result of the season). And in total, he scored 285.10 points. He set personal records for the number of points for the free program and for the total.

Second place went to the 2025 Asian Games champion and 2023 World Championship silver medalist CHA Jun Hwan from South Korea (265.02). American Jimmy Ma finished third (245.01). Their programs were noticeably less complex than Mikhail Shaidorov's performance.

- I didn't really change anything, I just worked a lot and I'm very happy that I managed to show difficult cascades this season, and I want to continue showing them. Thanks to them, I attracted attention to myself. In addition, I worked a lot on skating skills, on choreography before and during the season and will continue to do so, - Mikhail said at a press conference.

It is interesting that our figure skater brought gold to Kazakhstan at the Four Continents Championships in the same arena where Denis Ten won in 2015.

- This gold medal means a lot to me. Ten years ago, Denis Ten won the first gold medal of the Four Continents Championship for Kazakhstan here, and now I was able to bring this medal to our country again. I am overwhelmed with emotions. This victory is very significant both for Kazakhstan and in memory of Denis, - Mikhail noted.

Another Kazakhstani, Dias JIRENBAYEV, took 19th place (166.34).

In women's single skating, the bronze medalist of the 2025 World Universiade, 18-year-old Kazakhstani Sofia SAMODELKINA took seventh place. In total, our figure skater scored 193.37 points. The gold medal was won by Korean KIM Chae Yeon (222.38). American Braddy TENNELL came in second (204.38), and another representative of the USA, Sarah EVERHARD, came in third (200.03). Kazakhstani Sofia FARAFONOVA finished 20th, scoring 104.20 points.

“I think I skated better than before, so I’m happy. I’m glad that two important competitions have come to an end. Now there will be a short break, and then again preparation for the World Championships. I want to work on everything, but especially on the cleanliness of the programs. So now I want to polish everything. I’m very happy for Misha Shaidorov. I know what he went through. Of course, this inspires, and I want to be no worse,” Golden Skate quotes Samodelkina as saying.

Alexander TROFIMOV, photo from the website olympic.kz, Almaty