Denis Ten, Olympic Skating Medalist, Stabbed to Death in Kazakhstan

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Denis Ten performing at the Pyeongchang Games in February.CreditLucy Nicholson/Reuters

July 19, 2018

Denis Ten, an Olympic bronze medalist in men’s figure skating in 2014, died on Thursday at age 25 after being stabbed in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Ten was taken to the hospital after the attack and died a few hours later. Russian and Kazakh news media reported that two men had been trying to steal mirrors from Ten’s car. Ten lost a significant amount of blood, and doctors said CPR was administered for two hours, but in vain.

“Denis Ten caught two unidentified persons trying to steal mirrors from his car,” the Almaty Department of Internal Affairs said. “As a result of a brawl, citizen Denis Ten was stabbed. An investigation has been initiated; measures are being taken to identify and detain suspects.”

Born in Almaty, Ten was part of Kazakhstan’s Korean minority. He moved to Moscow to train at a higher level at age 10, then to Southern California to work with the top American coach Frank Carroll.

He won a surprise silver medal at the world championships in 2013, then a bronze at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

His Olympic season had been disrupted by an infection, and he finished ninth in the short program. But skating to Shostakovich in the free skate, he opened with a quad toe loop, jumped higher than many of his opponents, made few errors, and pulled himself up to third.

This year he had hoped to do well in the Olympics in South Korea, his ancestral home. But hampered by ankle, back and hip injuries, he placed 27th.

“The way his blade touches the ice and the way he moves his body through space on the ice is highly individual,” Lori Nichol, a choreographer who worked with him, said in 2015. “And his passion is not just throwaway passion. It’s this really deep, profound passion, and when he lets it out, I’ve been reduced to tears in practice sometimes because, oh my God, I get blown away. I’ve worked at a high level and never seen anyone like it.”