Career
But then his trainer left and Mikhaylov"s new trainer forced him to do only boxing exercises. This made Mikhaylov lose interest in boxing. Mikhaylov then decided to try skating.
But in 1951, he had to join the army.
In the army, he was bored and he missed skating, drawing pictures of skates in letters he wrote. After having been demobilised, Mikhaylov, even more obsessed with skating than before, trained furiously and made up for all the skating he had missed while in the army.
At the Soviet Allround Championships that year, Mikhaylov finished 6th, while finishing second on the 1500 m behind Boris Shilkov. Mikhaylov"s best year came in 1956.
During races in Davos, he broke Grishin"s 1500 m world record.
At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d"Ampezzo, he participated in the 500 m, but he fell and did not finish. Two days later was the day of his favourite distance, the 1500 m and – ten days after Mikhaylov had become the 1500 m world record holder – he watched Grishin finish his 1500 m in a new world record time of 2:08.6. In the next pair, Mikhaylov equalled Grishin"s time and they shared Olympic gold.
Over the course of his career, Mikhaylov skated two world records:
Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com.