Cha Jun-hwan, who missed the bronze medal by 0.98 points, still achieved the best '4th place' in the Korean male figure Korea history... "I learned my life as a person, not an athlete."" [the scene of Milan]

*This content was translated by AI.

Cha Jun-hwan (Seoul Metropolitan Government), the leading figure skater in Korean figure skating, unfortunately failed to win a medal at the third Olympic stage, but he has rewritten the history of Korean men's figure skating. He couldn't stand on the podium due to a short gap, but he finished fourth, the highest ranking ever.

Cha Jun-hwan scored 181.20 points in the men's single free skate at the '2026 Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics' figure skating at the Milan Ice Skating Arena on the 13th (local time), adding 1 point to the technical score (TES) of 95.16 and the art score (PCS) of 87.04 points.

Cha Jun-hwan, who previously scored 92.72 points in the short program, was ranked fourth among the total 24 athletes with a final total of 273.92.

She was only 0.98 points behind Japan's Satoshun (274.90 points), who won the bronze medal. Initially, it seemed that it would not be easy to reach the medal table, but Cha Jun-hwan's ranking rose as Ilya Malin (USA) and Adam Xiao Himpa (France), who were at the top of the short program, fell in the free skate.

With this, Cha Jun-hwan once again broke his best record in the Korean men's single Olympics. Having confirmed his potential by finishing 15th at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, he jumped to fifth place at the 2022 Beijing Games and climbed to fourth place at this third Olympics.

Cha Jun-hwan, who started acting to "Balada para un Loco," started off in a good mood by succeeding in his first task, quadruple salco. However, it was painful to make a mistake when the landing shook and fell during the quadruple toe loop jump.

However, Cha Jun-hwan, who got up right away, pulled off the remaining jumping tasks such as the triple lutz-triple toe loop combination and triple axel without making a big mistake. In particular, the program was completed by stably delaying the combination jump of the second half of the extra point section and the step and spin elements that received the highest difficulty (Level 4). Cha fell short of his personal best (296.03 points in total) set at the 2023 World Championships.

Cha Jun-hwan, who was called "Figure Shindong" and "Kim Yu-na Kids" early on and mastered five triple jumps in elementary school, paved the way for Korean men's figure skating.

He became the first Korean male player to win a bronze medal at the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final in the 2016-2017 season, and has since made great achievements on the senior stage, including advancing to the Grand Prix Final, making it to the top 10 at the World Championships, and the gold medal at the Four Continents Championships. In particular, at the 2025 Harbin Winter Asian Games held in February last year, he became the first Korean male player to win a gold medal and gained momentum.

He missed the Olympic medal he wanted after three tries, but Cha again pushed his limits and left a meaningful milestone in Korean figure skating history.

Cha Jun-hwan's expression, which he met in the mixed zone (joint coverage area) after the game, was full of relief even though he was disappointed. "I was waiting for the end of the third Olympics and I was curious," he said. "I made a mistake in the free, but I'm satisfied because I poured everything into it like I promised after the short."

He confessed his honest feelings about the result of being fourth with a 0.98 point difference. Cha Jun-hwan said, "If you look at the rankings, you can't help but feel disappointed," but added, "But if you look at the process you've been preparing, you've poured out everything without any regret. The achievement of the results is a little disappointing, but the achievement of the process seems to be definitely achieved. I learned more in my life as a person than in my life as a player," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.