Denis Ten, the Olympic athlete who won Kazakhstan’s first ever figure skating medal at Sochi 2014, once recalled a routine featuring “a person who lost to his enemy, worked hard, overcame himself and in the end won”. That was a love story on ice. He was offered no such opportunity in real life last week. Ten was found in the street following an altercation that occurred when two thieves, intent on stealing his car mirrors, apparently, stabbed him, leaving him with a thigh injury. He died, aged 25, in hospital in his native Kazakhstan.
In 2011, Ten described the storytelling that informed the track accompanying one of his routines – he often stayed up into the early hours to cut these himself. Growing up there, Ten initially showed talent as a musician. His mother, Oksana, a violinist, thought he would follow in her footsteps. Ten spent five years at music school in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city.
Softly spoken and modest – a persona that contrasted with the intention and thrust with which he launched himself into jumps – Ten embodied the Olympic dream for a generation of Kazakh athletes. His soaring success in the rink inspired a whole nation to take to the ice.