Denis Ten

Denis Ten’s first passion was music and, at the age of nine, he was a member of the Kazakhstani team that won a silver medal at the 2002 World Choir Games. He experimented with several different sports in his youth, but had settled on figure skating by the age of ten, first competing internationally three years later. His first World Junior Championship appearance came in 2007, when he placed 26th, but he improved to 16th the following year. By 2009 he was taking part in the Senior World Championships and, by virtue of his eighth-place finish, he qualified to represent Kazakhstan at the 2010 Winter Olympics. There, he placed 11th among 30 total competitors in the men’s singles event. He was 13th at the year’s World Championships.

Ten’s big international breakthrough came at the 2011 Asian Winter Games, where he won the men’s singles tournament, and the following year he came in 7th at the World Championships. At the 2013 edition, however, he was second only to Canada’s Patrick Chan, thus becoming Kazakhstan’s first medalist at the Worlds. Expectations were raised for him at the 2014 Winter Olympics and he did not disappoint, capturing bronze in the men’s singles behind Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and Chan, making him the first (and as of 2018, only) Kazakhstani figure skating medalist. He carried this momentum to the 2015 World Championships, where he again placed third, this time behind Spain’s Javier Fernández and Hanyu.

After this point, injuries began to plague Ten, although he did take gold in the men’s singles at the 2017 Winter Universiade. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, however, he could only manage 27th after the short program and did not qualify for the free skate. He was still preparing for competition when he was stabbed to death after confronting two thieves who were trying to steal the mirrors from his car, giving him the unfortunate distinction of being the first 2018 Winter Olympian to die, just five months after the Games.