MOSCOW — Olympic figure skating medalist Denis Ten was killed Thursday, and prosecutors in Kazakhstan said they were treating the case as murder.
Born in Kazakhstan to a family of Korean descent, Ten moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to train with Frank Carroll, the longtime coach of five-time World champion Michelle Kwan and Evan Lysacek, the 2010 Olympic champion. Ten’s bronze at the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014 made him Kazakhstan’s first medalist in figure skating.
He was considered a longshot for a medal in Sochi because in the months leading up to the Olympics he suffered a series of injuries and illness. Still he managed to take the bronze medal at the Olympic Games.
The International Skating Union said it was “deeply saddened” by news of Ten’s death.
Ten also won the Four Continents championships in 2015, and took the silver medal the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario.
Ten hadn’t formally retired from skating, but in recent months he’d often spoken of his studies in economics and his plans to write a movie script.
“Independently of what happens in the future, I realize that I had a great career, where everything happened — highs and lows, medals and disappointments, nice memories and not so nice ones, unique events, meetings and many magical things,” Ten said in September in an interview with the ISU website.