Figure Skater Cha Jun-hwan Stumbles in Team Event, Vows Clean Performance in Individual Competition

Figure skating star Cha Jun-hwan (Seoul City Hall) vowed to redeem himself in the individual event after a disappointing performance in his first competition at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics.

Cha finished eighth among 10 skaters in the men's single short program at the figure skating team event held at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on February 7 (local time). He received a technical element score (TES) of 41.78, a program component score (PCS) of 41.75, for a total of 83.53 points.

South Korea earned 3 points from Cha's performance, bringing their total to 14 points and a seventh-place team finish. The result eliminated them from the free skate, which features only the top five teams. In the previous day's ice dance rhythm dance, the pair of Lim Hae-na and Kwon Ye (Gyeonggi Province) placed seventh for 4 points, while Shin Ji-a (Sehwa Girls' High School) finished fourth in women's singles for 7 points. However, Korea had no pairs competitors and could not score in that discipline.

South Korea was the only country among the 10 participating nations to compete in just three of the four disciplines. The team approached the team event as a warm-up for the individual competitions.

Skating fifth in the order, Cha performed his short program to "Rain in Your Black Eyes."

He executed a perfect quadruple Salchow on his first jumping pass, followed by a flawless triple Lutz-triple loop combination. He also completed a flying camel spin at Level 4.

However, a major error occurred on his final jumping element—the triple Axel in the second half. His rotation came undone during takeoff, resulting in a single Axel of just one and a half rotations.

The men's singles short program requires either a double Axel or triple Axel, so the single Axel received zero points.

Cha recovered to complete his change foot sit spin, step sequence, and change foot combination spin, all at Level 4.

"The timing was off at the moment of takeoff," Cha said after the competition. "I consider it a vaccination shot. I trained intensively for about ten days to address weaknesses from the Four Continents Championships. Today's mistake wasn't something that happens in practice, which is disappointing, but I think I did well in other areas. I just need to practice well until the individual event."

"Today's mistake wasn't really due to nerves—something just didn't click," he added. "I'll address those issues and perform without mistakes in the individual competition."

Cha will compete in the individual short program on the morning of February 11 (Korea time).