Igor Alekseyevich Malkov (russian: И́горь Алексе́евич Малко́в) (born 9 February 1965 in

Pervouralsk Pervouralsk (russian: Первоура́льск, lit. ''the first in the Urals'') is a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Chusovaya River (Kama's tributary) west of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the oblast. Populatio ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

) is a former

speedskater 　 Long-track speed skating, usually simply referred to as speed skating, is the Olympic discipline of speed skating where competitors are timed while crossing a set distance. It is also a sport for leisure. Sports such as ice skating marathon, ...

. Igor Malkov trained at VSS Trud in Sverdlovsk. Skating for the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, he became Olympic 10,000 m Champion at the 1984 Olympic Games in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, only 0.05 seconds ahead of

Tomas Gustafson Sven Tomas Gustafson (born 28 December 1959) is a retired Swedish speed skater, and one of the most successful distance skaters of the 1980s. Early career Born in Katrineholm, he won the World Junior Championships title, in Grenoble, France, i ...

, 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 Olympic speedskater winner is American

Anne Henning Anne Elizabeth Henning (born September 6, 1955) is a retired American Speed skating, speed skater. She grew up in Northbrook, Illinois, and started in short track speed skating, but then, like many short track speed skaters before and after her, ...

, who won the 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

Medeu The Medeu ( kk, Медеу, ''Medeu''), is an outdoor speed skating and bandy rink. It is located in a mountain valley (Medeu tract, Medeu Valley, or the valley of Malaya Almatinka River) on the south-eastern outskirts of Almaty, Kazakhstan. M ...

in December 1983. However, this time was never recognised as a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

by the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Net ...

. 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 Geir Karlstad (born 7 July 1963) is a Norwegian former speed skater and national team speed skating coach. Biography Although best at the longest distances (the 5,000 m and the 10,000 m), Geir Karlstad became Junior World Allround Champ ...

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. Malkov was awarded the

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples (russian: oрден Дружбы народов, translit=orden Druzhby narodov) was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military unit ...

in 1984.

Records

World records

Over the course of his career, Malkov skated one officially ISU-recognised

, in addition to his more famous but not ISU-recognised 13:54.81: Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

Personal records

Malkov has an Adelskalender score of 160.405 points. In 1984, he had his highest ranking on the Adelskalender when he was third, allowing only his fellow countrymen Viktor Shasherin and Andrey Bobrov before him.

References

Igor Malkov at SpeedSkatingStats.comPhoto and an interview with Igor Malkov
(in Russian)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malkov, Igor 1965 births Living people Russian male speed skaters Soviet male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters of the Soviet Union Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Speed skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in speed skating World record setters in speed skating Medalists at the 1984 Winter Olympics People from Pervouralsk Sportspeople from Sverdlovsk Oblast