Igor Malkov
Igor Alekseyevich Malkov () (born
9 February 1965 in
Pervouralsk,
Russian SFSR) is a former
speed skater.
Skating for the
Soviet Union, Igor Malkov became Olympic 10,000 m Champion at the
1984 Olympic Games in
Sarajevo, only 0.05 seconds ahead of
Tomas Gustafson, becoming the youngest
male Olympic champion in the history of Olympic speed skating at an age of 19 years and 9 days. (The youngest
female at the time being American
Anne Henning, who won the Olympic 500 m in 1972 at the age of 16.)
Earlier at those Olympics, he had lost the 5,000 m race by only 0.02 seconds to Gustafson. Before that, during the same winter, Malkov had sent shock waves into the speed skating world when he skated 13:54.81 on the 10,000 m, thus becoming the first to break the 14 minutes barrier (and almost 30 seconds ahead of the time set by then-current world record holder Gustafson) during the Christmas races at
Medeo in December 1983. However, this time was never recognised as a
world record by the
International Skating Union. He set a new, official, world record later the same season, when he finished in a time of 14:21.51 at Medeo in March 1984, almost 30 seconds behind his personal best. His official world record would last for almost two years (until broken by
Geir Karlstad on
16 February 1986) and his internationally unrecognised record was unbroken for four years (until broken by, again, Geir Karlstad, on
4 December 1987).
The following seasons were not so good for Malkov, and he quit top skating after the 1988 season, although he made one more appearance at the Soviet Allround Championships of 1990.
Over the course of his career, Malkov skated one officially ISU-recognised
world record, in addition to his more famous but not ISU-recognised 13:54.81:
Malkov has an
Adelskalender score of 160.405 points. In 1984, he had his highest ranking on the Adelskalender when he was 3rd, allowing only his fellow countrymen
Viktor Shasherin and
Sergey Bobrov before him.
*
Igor Malkov at SkateResults.com*
Adelskalender*
Photo and an interview with Igor Malkov (in Russian)
