Career
Igor Malkov trained at VSS Trud in Sverdlovsk. Earlier at those Olympics, he had lost the 5,000 m race by only 0.02 seconds to Gustafson. Before that, during the same winter, Malkov had sent shock waves into the speed skating world when he skated 13:54.81 on the 10,000 m, thus becoming the first to break the 14 minutes barrier (and almost 30 seconds ahead of the time set by then-current world record holder Gustafson) during the Christmas races at Medeo in December 1983.
However, this time was never recognised as a world record by the International Skating Union.
He set a new, official, world record later the same season, when he finished in a time of 14:21.51 at Medeo in March 1984, almost 30 seconds behind his personal best. His official world record would last for almost two years (until broken by Geir Karlstad on 16 February 1986) and his internationally unrecognised record was unbroken for four years (until broken by, again, Geir Karlstad, on 4 December 1987).
The following seasons were not so good for Malkov, and he quit top skating after the 1988 season, although he made one more appearance at the Soviet Allround Championships of 1990. World records
Over the course of his career, Malkov skated one officially International Skating Union-recognised world record, in addition to his more famous but not International Skating Union-recognised 13:54.81:
Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com
Personal records
Malkov has an Adelskalender score of 160.405 points.
In 1984, he had his highest ranking on the Adelskalender when he was third, allowing only his fellow countrymen Viktor Shasherin and Andrey Bobrov before him.