Igor Malkov

Igor Malkov was one of the best long distance skaters of the mid-1980s, although he had only one great season, which was 1984. At the end of 1983, during the Christmas races in Medeo, Malkov was the first skater to break the 14 minute barrier in the 10,000 m, with 13:54.81, beating the previous World Record by almost a half a minute, but this time was never recognized as a World Record by the ISU. In 1984, Malkov first competed at the European All-around Championships, where he won the 5,000 m, but his poor performance in shorter distances dropped him to ninth in all-around. At the 1984 Olympics, Malkov lost the 5,000 m title by a margin of only 2/100ths of a second to Tomas Gustafson of Sweden. But in the 10,000 m he got his revenge over Gustafson, beating him by 5/100ths of a second, becoming the youngest Olympic champion in the history of Olympic speed skating (through 2009), at 19 years and 9 days. After the Olympics, Malkov won silver in the 5,000 distance at the World All-around Championships and at the end of March he finally officially broke the 10,000 m World Record, clocking 14:21.51 in Medeo. After the 1984 season Malkov skated for a few more seasons, but without much success. In 1986 he won the 10K bronze at the World All-around Championships and in 1986 he also won his only two Soviet titles at 5 and 10K, but because of poor performances in the shorter distances, he had to settle for fourth place in all-around.

Personal Bests: 500 – 39.28 (1983); 1000 – 1:16.99 (1983); 1500 – 1:54.35 (1984); 5000 – 6:52.69 (1984); 10000 – 13:54.81 (1984).