Kazakh figure skater and 2026 Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov took third place after his short program performance in the men's event at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial of the Challenger series in Bratislava (Slovakia). This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Judges' scores and a new record
The skater received 95.98 points from the judges. This is a new personal record in the short program, as at the Olympics his short program result was 92.94 points.
Russian Evgeni Semenenko leads (101.16 points), with Italian Daniel Grassl in second place (99.10 points).
How the program went
According to media reports, Shaidorov cleanly executed a difficult combination of a quadruple Lutz and triple toe loop, as well as a triple Axel. A minor flaw occurred only on the landing from the quadruple toe loop.
What comes next
The final results of the competition and the distribution of medals at the Nepela Memorial will be known today, September 26, after the singles skaters present their free programs.
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What was reported earlier
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that Mikhail Shaidorov began work on a new program with renowned choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne. Collaboration with Bourne could become one of the main elements of Shaidorov's preparation for the new competitive cycle. She is considered one of the most authoritative choreographers in world figure skating and has worked with a number of leading skaters.
In addition, it was previously reported that Shaidorov was paid his award for victory at the 2026 Olympic Games 4 months later. As stated by the press service of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the athlete received $250 thousand (about 122 million tenge). It was precisely this amount of award money for the gold medal that was publicly discussed in February.