Kazakhstan’s highlights from 2026 Winter Olympic Games

The Games, held from 6 to 22 February, brought together 2,917 athletes from 94 countries competing for 116 sets of medals in 16 sports. Kazakhstan was represented by 36 athletes, evenly split between men and women, across 10 disciplines, including figure skating, speed skating, short track, freestyle skiing, ski jumping, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, and Nordic combined. Kazakh athletes competed in 49 medal events.

First Winter Olympic Gold in 32 years

The defining moment of the Games for Kazakhstan came on 13 February, when 21-year-old figure skater Mikhail Shaidorov won gold in the men’s singles event. The victory marked the country’s first Winter Olympic gold medal since 1994 and its first ever Olympic gold in figure skating.

Shaidorov, a medalist at the 2025 World Championships, had been considered a strong contender heading into the Games. However, few predicted he would stand atop the podium.

Until this victory, Kazakhstan’s most recent Winter Olympic title dated back to 1994, when cross-country skier Vladimir Smirnov claimed gold. In figure skating, the country’s only previous Olympic medal had been Denis Ten’s bronze in 2014. No Kazakh figure skaters competed in the discipline at the 2022 Games.

Thanks to Shaidorov’s gold, Kazakhstan finished 19th in the overall medal standings among 94 nations, placing inside the top 20 for the first time since 1994. Athletes from 29 countries won medals at the Games.

Twelve top 10 finishes across disciplines

In figure skating, 19-year-old Sofia Samodelkina placed 10th in her Olympic debut, setting a personal best total score of 207.46 points.

In speed skating, Nadezhda Morozova finished 6th in the 3,000 meters and 10th in the 5,000 meters, marking the best Olympic result for a Kazakh speed skater since 1998. Elizaveta Golubeva placed 7th in the 1,500 meters and also reached the top 10 in the 3,000 meters. The women’s team pursuit squad ranked among the top 8 teams of the Games. In the men’s 500 meters, Yevgeniy Koshkin secured 9th place.

Kazakhstan also made progress in ski jumping. Nineteen-year-old Ilya Mizernykh finished 8th on the large hill, the best Olympic result ever achieved by a Kazakh athlete in the discipline. In short track, Denis Nikisha placed 7th in the 500 meters, improving on his previous Olympic performance.

In freestyle moguls, two Kazakh athletes reached the top 10. Anastassiya Gorodko finished 8th in the parallel moguls, while Pavel Kolmakov placed 9th, significantly improving on the team’s results from 2022. In the freestyle aerials mixed team competition, Kazakhstan finished 7th.

The 2026 team was notable for its geographic diversity and generational renewal. Athletes represented 11 regions of the country, including the cities of Almaty, Astana and Shymkent, as well as several regions such as Akmola, East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Kostanay, North Kazakhstan, Karaganda, and Abai.

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported on Mikhail Shaidorov’s performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics gala show in Milan.