"I'm sure you're going to Milan." Figure skating Cha Jun-hwan won the short first place in the second round of Olympic trials... Free skating scheduled

*This content was translated by AI.

Cha Jun-hwan (25, Seoul Metropolitan Government), a Korean figure skating star, ranked first in the short program of the second national team selection match, which is at stake for qualification for the 2026 Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics.

Cha Jun-hwan received 97.50 points with 52.55 points in technical score (TES) and 44.95 points in art score (PCS) in the men's single short program at the second national team competition and the 80th National Figure Skating Championships held at Mokdong Ice Rink in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on the 3rd.

On this day, Cha Jun-hwan performed perfectly by cleanly handling the first task quadruple salco and the second task triple lutz-triple loop combination jump. The flying Carmel spin played to level 4, the highest difficulty, and the triple axel, the final jump task, was also perfect. In addition, the short program was completed smoothly with the change foot spin, step sequence (level 4) and change foot combination spin (level 3).

He beat second-place Seo Min-gyu (91.54 points) and third-place Choi Ha-bin (85.96 points in Han Advertising) by a large margin to take the first place.

Cha Jun-hwan will compete in free skating on the 4th, and unless he makes a big mistake, he will achieve his third consecutive Olympic appearance following the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and the 2022 Beijing Games.

The tickets to the Winter Olympics given to Korean figure skaters are two men's and women's singles and one ice dance.

The Korea Skating Union will determine the athletes who will compete in the Olympics by adding up the total points of the first and second trials in November last year. Cha Jun-hwan made a jump mistake in the first round of selection and scored a total of 255.72 points, finishing second behind Seo Min-gyu (262.84 points). However, Cha Jun-hwan is No. 1 among qualified athletes as athletes aged 17 or older can participate in the Winter Olympics.

Cha Jun-hwan scored 353.22 points from the first round of selection to the short program of this tournament. It is expected to qualify for the Olympics without difficulty, far ahead of second-place Kim Hyun-kyum (311.11 points) and third-place Lee Jae-geun (296.87 points).

Cha Jun-hwan will try to win his first Olympic medal at the 2026 Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Games after ranking 15th at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and 5th at the 2022 Beijing Games.

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*This content was translated by AI.