Korea's Lee Hae-in Finishes 8th in Olympic Figure Skating

Korean figure skating star Lee Hae-in (Korea University) secured a top-10 finish in her first Olympic appearance. Shin Ji-a (Sehwa Girls' High School) set a personal best in free skating.

Lee scored 140.49 points in the women's singles free skating at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on February 20 (Korea time) at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, with a technical element score (TES) of 74.15 and program component score (PCS) of 66.34. Combined with her short program score of 70.07, she finished eighth with a total of 210.56 points.

Though Lee missed the podium, her top-10 result marks a meaningful achievement in her Olympic debut. She becomes the sixth Korean woman to finish in the top 10 in Olympic figure skating singles, following Kim Yu-na (gold at 2010 Vancouver, silver at 2014 Sochi), Choi Da-bin (7th at 2018 Pyeongchang), You Young (5th at 2022 Beijing), and Kim Ye-lim (8th at 2022 Beijing).

Teammate Shin Ji-a also delivered an impressive performance. She earned 141.02 points with a TES of 75.05 and PCS of 65.97, surpassing her previous personal best of 138.95 set at the 2024 World Junior Championships. Shin finished 11th with a total score of 206.68.

"Setting a personal best in free skating at the Olympics makes it even more meaningful," Shin said after the competition. "Competing in this Olympics has made me want to compete in the next one even more. I feel some regret, but I want to show a more mature and stronger version of myself in four years."

Alysa Liu of the United States claimed the gold medal with 226.79 points. This marks the first Olympic women's singles title for an American skater in 24 years, since Sarah Hughes at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Japan's Kaori Sakamoto, who announced her retirement following this competition, took silver with 224.90 points, while Japan's Ami Nakai won bronze with 219.16 points.