Boxes checked in Beijing, bright future ahead for figure skater Cha Jun-hwan

BEIJING-- At the tender age of 20, Cha Jun-hwan has already reached uncharted territory in South Korean figure skating.

And he isn't about to stop.

Cha finished fifth in the men's singles competition at Beijing 2022 on Thursday, after scoring a new personal-best 282.38 points in the free skate at Capital Indoor Stadium. Cha had scored a personal-best 99.51 points in Tuesday's short program, the fourth-best score in the field, and followed that up with another career high in the free skate Thursday, with 182.87 points.

No South Korean male figure skater has placed higher in the Olympics than the cherubic Cha.

After weeks of talking only about the process and not the result, Cha revealed after his performance Thursday that his goal had been to set personal best scores and to finish among the top 10.

He checked all of those boxes in Beijing.

"At this Olympics, I think I was able to show what kind of figure skater I can be," Cha said. "I know a lot of people were maybe hoping for a medal after the short program. Still, this competition has given me so much hope for the future. I am expecting a bright future for myself."

Cha shook off a landing mistake on his opening quadruple toe loop jump. He took a hard fall on the ice but quickly collected himself to skate a mostly clean program the rest of the way.

"I didn't want to dwell on that mistake and tried to concentrate on the rest of my program instead," Cha said. "It hurt more than I'd expected, but it was important for me to put that behind me and execute all the remaining elements cleanly."

The former child actor has been breaking down barriers for most of his senior career.

In his Olympic debut on home ice at PyeongChang four years ago, Cha placed 15th, then the best performance by a South Korean male skater. The youngest skater in the field, Cha battled hip problems and flu during the Olympics.

He was even better in the 2018-2019 season. He won his first two International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix medals, taking home bronze at both Skate Canada and the Grand Prix of Helsinki. He remains the first South Korean man to win two consecutive Grand Prix medals.

Cha also qualified for the Grand Prix Final that season and won the bronze medal, another first for a South Korean male skater.

With most international events over the last two years canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cha remained in South Korea to train, instead of traveling to Toronto to be with his Canadian coach, Brian Orser.

Cha was in the midst of an up-and-down season heading into the Olympics. He missed the podium in his first Grand Prix event in November in Italy but finished third in the next Grand Prix stop the following week.

After winning the national Olympic trials with ease, Cha captured the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships title in Estonia on Jan. 23, just a couple of weeks left before Beijing.

Cha won that championship with then personal best scores of 98.96 points in the short program and 273.22 points in the overall score. Though some of the biggest names in figure skating, such as Nathan Chen of the United States and Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, skipped the event, becoming the first South Korean man to win an ISU title did wonders to Cha's confidence heading into Beijing.

His early mistake on Thursday notwithstanding, Cha looked the part of a confident athlete in Beijing.

Even if Cha had landed that quad toe loop cleanly, it's doubtful that he would have won a medal. The three medalists -- Chen, Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno -- all attempted more quadruple jumps than Cha. Chen, the greatest technician in contemporary figure skating, landed five quad jumps cleanly. Out of Chen's 218.63 points in the free skate, 121.41 points came via his technical element score (TES), which assesses skaters' jumps and spins, among others. Cha, on the other hand, had 93.59 points in his TES.

Unless Cha starts attempting more quad jumps and landing them more consistently, he won't win this numbers game. And there is only so much a skater can do to narrow that gap with other elements, such as spins, spirals and step sequences. That's not lost on Cha, either.

"Eventually, I'll have to add more quad jumps and minimize mistakes," Cha said. "That's something I'll have to keep working on."

Cha said he learned a great deal from some mishaps during his preparation for PyeongChang 2018 and added that competing in Beijing has given him even more lessons that he can take to heart.

"I think I was much better prepared this time than PyeongChang," he said. "I've learned how to control nerves and pressure here. The experience I've had here will be an important asset for me going forward."

Cha said he enjoyed being in the Olympics so much that he'd like more South Korean figure skaters to experience the competition, too.

"I've gone through so many trying moments, but once I got here, I realized it was all worth it," Cha said. "It's a dream come true for an athlete to compete in the Olympics. I am taking away so much from this."

Source: Yonhap News Agency

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