Cha Jun-hwan of Korea performs his short programme in the men’s single skating event during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Italy, Feb. 10. TASS-Yonhap
MILAN — Sitting about 10 points off the bronze medal position heading into the free skate later in the week, figure skater Cha Jun-hwan said Thursday he won’t mess with what got him to this point in the first place.
Cha ranked sixth in the short program of the men’s singles competition at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games with 92.72 points on Tuesday. Adam Siao Him Fa of France occupies third place with 102.55 points, while Ilia Malinin of the United States leads the way with 108.16 points and Yuma Kagiyama of Japan is in second place with 103.07 points.
Cha finished fifth at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, the highest placement by a South Korean male figure skater. Cha will have his work cut out to match or top that performance after the free skate on Friday, considering the evolution of figure skating over the years.
Male figure skaters are more technically advanced now than before, with Malinin in particular earning the moniker “Quad God” for his proficiency with quadruple jumps. Attempting several of them in a free program has become the norm. And because the quad jumps have higher base scores, simply attempting more of them can help skaters beat their less technically-inclined rivals in the numbers game.
Cha used to attempt three quads in his free skate but has reduced the number to two, as he is just emerging from nagging ankle problems.
After a training session at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Thursday, Cha said his focus will be on executing his current program, not making it more difficult.
“Obviously, adding more challenging elements can be one of the ways to make up ground,” he said. “But I’ve been working hard with the program the way it is. I think it’s more important to try to put on a clean program.”
Cha does have a relatively recent history of staging a comeback in the free skate with his conservative program. At the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, in February 2025, Cha went into the free skate trailing Kagiyama by 9.72 points. In the free program, Cha attempted two quads and still earned 187.60 points with a flawless performance, and Kagiyama had only 168.95 points in his mistake-filled free skate to let the South Korean win the gold medal.
The gap this time would have been narrower if Cha had received the score that he felt he deserved. He was called for a “quarter landing” on his triple axel, meaning judges felt he didn’t have a full rotation, and Cha received only Level 3 on his step sequence, an element he often gets a full Level 4.
Cha was visibly frustrated when the score was first announced Tuesday and he reiterated his disappointment Thursday.
“Honestly, I was disappointed in the moment that the score was much lower than I expected,” Cha said. “I thought long and hard about it. I always want to enjoy the process because I think the result will then follow. Although I didn’t get the result I wanted that time, I still did what I wanted to do on the ice. Nothing changes the fact that I gave it my best effort.”
