Denis Ten, an Olympic bronze medallist in men’s figure skating in 2014, died 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 news media reported that two men had been trying to steal mirrors from Ten’s car.
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 top American coach Frank Carroll.
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He won a surprise silver medal at the world championships in 2013, then a bronze at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
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.”