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| Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea takes part in the men's figure skating at the Gangneung Ice Arena Saturday. The 16 year-old recorded 248.59 to place 15th overall. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Kim Hyun-bin
Rising figure skater Cha Jun-hwan broke two of his personal records and placed 15th overall in the men's single's event at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the highest Olympic ranking by a Korea-born athlete.
Cha competed in the men's single free skating event at the Gangneung Ice Arena, Saturday, and recorded 165.16 and 83.43 in the short program Friday, his personal bests in both events
The 16 year-old skated to the original soundtrack of "The Postman," and earned 165.16 points and an overall 248.59, breaking his personal best score of 160.13 in the free skate and 242.45 overall.
His 15th place finish is two notches higher than Jung Sung-il, who took 17th at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994.
Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan won back-to-back golds recording a whopping 317.85.
Hanyu became the first male skater to defend the Olympic title since American Dick Button in 1952.
Japan's Shoma UNO won silver with 306.90 and Spain's two-time world champion Javier Fernandez took bronze with 305.24.
Cha's score was 69.26 points behind Hanyu and 58.31 points short of runner up Uno.
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| South Korea's rising figure skater Cha Jun-hwan in mid-air during a triple jump at the Gangneung Ice Arena Saturday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
The young skater included one quadruple jump in his program, while other competitors included several quads. Nathan Chan of the United States included six quad jumps in his free skating alone.
However, Cha's 15th place finish did not come easy as he had to deal with injuries and boot problems.
"Last season as a junior, I worked hard on managing quad jumps, and I did them pretty well," Cha said. "But this season, I suffered an ankle injury and boot problems. I tried to do all these things too fast at the same time."
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| Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea shows off a maneuver at Gangneung Ice Arena Saturday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Cha said he learned a lot from his first Olympics and plans to work even harder to achieve a better score in the next Winter Games in Beijing.
"I learned a lot from this season. I gave it my all the PyeongChang Olympics will never come again," said Cha. "All skaters here have a lot of experience on the senior stage. For me, this is my first year. I'll strive to improve in the future."
