2025 ISU Four Continents Champion, 2025 ISU World silver medalist, ISU Grand Prix Finalist ... Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov celebrated a big break-through in the past season not only results-wise. The 21-year-old from Almaty also made history by becoming the first skater to land unique combinations with a quad as the second jump: a triple Axel-Euler-quad Salchow and a triple Axel-quad toeloop. And he became a fan favorite especially with his cute panda bear gala exhibition when he dressed up as a panda and even performed jumps in this bulky costume. 

“It is very hard to jump in this costume,” he shared. “The panda program was my idea. I love pandas, we have something in common, therefore I had this idea. I like to watch videos with pandas, it calms me down to watch how they are calmly chewing on their bamboo. I want to be a panda!,” he said, laughing. The fans heard him and he gets a lot of panda bear toys.

 Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ), here with coaches Alexei Urmanov (right) and Ivan Righini, is a big fan of panda bears © ISU

Shaidorov started the Olympic season with a silver and a bronze medal at his ISU Grand Prix events Saatva Skate America and Cup of China to qualify for the ISU Grand Prix Final. A year ago, he came as a substitute into the Final, this year he got into it directly. 

Shaidorov, whose father is a figure skating coach and taught him in the first years, now trains mostly in his hometown Almaty and is coached by 1994 Olympic Champion Alexei Urmanov and Olympian Ivan Righini.  

“In figure skating, the foundations are always laid in childhood and I am very grateful to my father, who invested a lot of effort and work in me to train me properly as a child,” Mikhail pointed out. “Thanks to this, we have achieved a lot and we are now continuing on this path with Alexei Evgenievitch (Urmanov). Of course, I'm very stubborn and can't get off the ice if I don't succeed at something. I always try to do everything as well as possible and get the most out of training. That's talent and hard work combined. But it's also the colossal work of all the experts.”

Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) does not want to be known only for his jumping ability © ISU

While Shaidorov drew a lot of attention with his jump combinations, he does not want to be known just as a jumper.  “We have worked a lot on the programs, I wanted to prove that I can do more than just jump,” he noted. “I am trying to improve with each competition. Each competition gives me something new, new ideas, new thoughts and also to my coaches. I wanted to develop this (artistic) side of my skating for a long time.” 

The ISU Four Continents Champion got two new programs for the season but after Skate America changed the Short Program back to his successful “Dune” program from the past season. 

“I decided to bring last year’s program back because it seems to me that I’m feeling it more,” he said. I really enjoy this memorable character and I can do this program even better than I did last year.”

The Free Skating is set to “Confessa” and “The Diva Dance” – and it was a choice Shaidorov made a while ago. He saved this music for the Olympic season.

“I chose this music already five years ago,” he said. “The first part is the song Confessa by Adriano Celentano, but performed by Kazakh singer Dimash. The second part is from the Fifth Element soundtrack.  Five years ago I saw a video of Dimash performing in China that impressed me incredibly, it gave me the goosebumps. I can’t even describe it. Then I told myself that once I have reached a very good level in the sport, I will take this composition for my Free Skating. I think the Olympic season is the right moment to use it and my coach Alexei Urmanov and my choreographer Ivan Righini agreed with this idea.

“We wanted to show how to unite two very different type of music pieces into one,“ Shaidorov explained. “I've worked a lot with Ivan, on these programs. He had a lot of ideas. We are seeing in the program how we combine these two different styles of music. The first part of the program is more about love, while the second part is more about the future. So this program is about combining these two very important things.”

Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) followed up on his success from the past season with ISU Grand Prix medals © ISU

The past season was such a whirlwind for Mikhail that he needed some time to process it and some rest. For him, the best way to recharge himself is to spend quality time with his family. 

“There were a lot of competitions and I counted that I made history five times: at first with my two ratified jump combinations (triple Axel-quadruple toeloop and triple Axel-Euler-quadruple Salchow), then by competing in the ISU Grand Prix Final as the first skater from Kazakhstan (at the senior level), by winning Four Continents (ten years after the late Denis Ten) and a world medal (again ten years after Denis Ten). The season started with some history and ended with some history. This is probably the best I could have done, I couldn’t even think about that at the beginning of the season,” he recalled. 

With success, the expectations and pressure are growing. Mikhail felt that especially at the ISU World Championships 2025 but he decided that he does not want that to get to him too much.

“I came into this sport to improve myself and to do what I love. This is the most important thing to me," he said.

“Obviously, I am very happy to be able to hold up the flag of my country. Now a lot of figure skaters in Kazakhstan are excited about this success and this will attract new kids into this sport and to me this is the most important. What I can do for my country is to develop this sport, to make it popular thanks to my medals. I feel an unreal support and pride that I can do that, but first of all I am skating because I love it.”