South Korea's berth for the next men's singles figure skating World Championships has been reduced to one after both Cha Young-hyun and Kim Hyun-gyeom (both from Korea University) failed to advance past the short program.
Cha Young-hyun scored 70.92 points — a technical element score (TES) of 37.70 and a program component score (PCS) of 37.70 — to finish 27th out of 36 skaters in the men's singles short program at the 2026 International Skating Union (ISU) World Figure Skating Championships held at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic, on Monday (Korea time). He failed to qualify for the free skate, which is open only to the top 24 skaters.
Kim Hyun-gyeom, competing alongside Cha, also missed the free skate cut after finishing 28th with a TES of 39.22, a PCS of 31.49 and a total of 70.71 points.
Cha Jun-hwan (Seoul Metropolitan Government), South Korea's top men's singles figure skater who achieved the country's best-ever result of fourth place in the discipline at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, withdrew from the competition due to injury. Cha Young-hyun competed as his replacement.
As a result, South Korea's berths for the next World Championships in men's singles have been cut from two to one. The World Championships allocate each country's berths for the following year's competition based on the combined placement of its skaters. When two skaters compete, a combined placement of 13 or below earns three berths, 28 or below earns two, and above 28 earns only one.
Ilia Malinin of the United States claimed first place in the short program with a personal best of 111.29 points. Known as the "Quad God," Malinin had been a strong favorite at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics but failed to win a medal after a severely troubled performance. He regained his confidence through Monday's skate. Having won the World Championships in 2024 and 2025, Malinin is now aiming for a three-peat.
Adam Siao Him Fa of France finished second with 101.85 points, while Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia placed third with 96.49 points.
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, the men's singles gold medalist at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, did not compete. Kagiyama Yuma and Sato Shun, both of Japan, who won silver and bronze respectively at the Olympics, finished sixth (93.80 points) and fourth (95.84 points). The men's singles free skate, which will determine the medal outcomes, begins on the afternoon of the 28th.