Cha Jun-hwan finished No. 7 in the men's singles at the 2025 World Championships, and South Korea qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the third line of figure skating

The 23-year-old South Korean men's figure skater Cha Jun-hwan finished seventh at the World Championships and helped South Korea secure a "1+1" quota place at the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026 Winter Olympics.

Cha Jun-hwan performs at the 2025 International Skating Union (ISU) figure skating men's single free skating competition at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

On the 30th, Beijing time, Che Junhuan scored 93.22 points in the technical score (TES), 86.11 points in the art score (PCS), and a total score of 179.33 points in the men's single free skating competition at the 2025 International Skating Union (ISU) Figure Skating World Championships held at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Then add the total score of 86.41 points in the short program, and the final total score was fixed at 265.74 points, ranking 7th among all competitors.

With Cha Jun-hwan in the top 10, South Korea has secured at least one and a maximum of two tickets to the men's singles figure skating Winter Olympics at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February. The World Championships will allocate the quota places for each country in the Olympic Games, and countries with more than two participants can participate according to the sum of the top two places. According to the rules, if the two have a combined ranking of 13 or less, they will receive 3 tickets, and if they are below 28, they will receive 2 tickets.

Cha Jun-hwan was ranked 7th among the two Koreans who represented the competition, but Kim Hyun-kyun, who competed with him, finished 26th in the short program and failed to make it to the free skate. According to ISU regulations, the ranking of eliminated players is calculated as 18. South Korea combined Cha Jun-hwan's 7th place and Kim Hyun-kyun's 18th place to finish 25th.

The ISU also stipulates that the remaining tickets can be re-secured through the Olympic qualifiers, after the free skating quota has been removed from the guaranteed tickets. As a result, South Korea could send a competitor to the men's figure skating singles at the Winter Olympics, which could be awarded another entry based on the results of the Olympic qualifiers in Beijing in September. In the Olympic qualifiers in Beijing, South Koreans except Cha Jun-hwan must compete.

Cha Jun-hwan who regretted after the race

Cha Jun-hwan, who finished 15th out of 24 competitors, began the performance to the melody of the free skating program "Love Song for a Madman". He flawlessly completed the first project, the difficult Sakhov quadruple jump, with a base score of 9.70 and a GOE score of 3.19. But in the subsequent quadruple jump, he missed the beat and was treated with a quadruple jump. Cha Jun-hwan also completed the double jump at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in China last month, and made the same mistake this time. He lost nearly 10 points on this jump alone. But Cha Jun-hwan did not waver, continued the performance with composure, and perfectly performed the triple jump-triple triple jump combination jump and the triple triple triple of the three-and-a-half turn.

The men's singles championship at this World Championships was won by Ilya Malinen of the United States, who scored 318.56 points. This is the second year in a row that he has confirmed his title after last year. The silver medal was won by the winner of the Four Continents Championships, Sedorov Mikael (Kazakhstan, 287.47 points), and the bronze medal was won by Yuma Kagiyama (Japan, 278.19 points).

Malinen did six quadruple jumps in the free skate, including the quadruple Axel, a super-high technique with four and a half turns. The United States and Japan each won three Olympic tickets in the men's singles at the World Championships. France gets 2+1, Italy and Latvia get 2, and Kazakhstan and Georgia get 1+1.

South Korea also qualified for the Olympic Games in the ice dance competition at the previous World Championships. Hae Na Lim and Ye-jo Kwon received 59.55 TES and 45.72 PCS, for a total of 105.27 points. The two contestants scored 72.04 points in rhythm dance, and the final total score was 177.31 points, ranking 18th.

Korean ice dance group Lim Hae Na Kwon Ye Jo

Hae Na Lim/Kwon Ye Jo helped South Korea get one ticket to participate in this event at next year's Winter Olympics. This is the third time that South Korean figure skating has won the Olympic ice dance right after the 2002 Salt Lake City Competition (Liang Tae-hwa - Lee Tianjun) and the 2018 PyeongChang Competition (Min Yo-la-Alexander Gamlin).

The United States and Canada each received three tickets for the Ice Dance Winter Olympics, the United Kingdom, France, Finland and the Czech Republic received two tickets each, Italy, Spain and Georgia each received 1+1 tickets, and Germany received one ticket.

In the women's singles competition that ended on the 29th, South Korea secured two Winter Olympics tickets thanks to the outstanding performances of Lee Hae-in (9th) and Kim Chae-yeon (10th). The Korea Skating Federation will select the national representatives for the 2026 Winter Olympics in future domestic trials.