Recap of the 2024 South Korean Championships national competition
The 2024 South Korean National Figure Skating Championships saw a return-to form from World silver medalist, Jun-hwan Cha, the continued rise of Jia Shin, and performances from Hai-in Lee, Chae-yeon Kim, and Young You that appear to have earned them spots on the 2024 World Championship team for South Korea.
Men’s Competition
Following a rough first half of the season for him, now eight time South Korean champion, Jun-hwan Cha, threw down two stellar programs and earned him his trip back to Worlds. His technical content was watered down, similar to the content he included at the Korean Ranking Competition late last year, but looked much more comfortable and confident on the ice here. He’ll need to increase difficultly at Four Continents and Worlds to be competitive, but this was a remarkable step in the right direction for him.
Also showing up well here was Si-hyeong Lee, who was stronger here than he has been in a while and looked like he’d made some improvements in his interpretation. His silver here will take him back to Worlds in Montreal this March.
Women’s Competition
The women’s competition was an interesting one, since 4 of the top 7 women here were Junior Level skaters.
That said, the now two-time National Champion, Jia Shin, looked anything but junior here. Both of her programs were elegant, musical, and highly technical. Her win by almost 13 points over reigning Senior World Silver medalist, Hae-in Lee, was a decisive one.
Hae-in Lee did have her strongest event of the season here, with a new short program that suited her style quite well. Her score ceiling is certainly higher with these two programs, so here’s hoping she can continue to improve headed into Four Continents and Worlds.
In third, Chae-yeon Kim came back from a 9th place short program to step onto the podium. Her long program was strong enough to give the impression that, had she had a clean short, she may have challenged for gold. This bodes well for her headed into the rest of the season.
Three other juniors, Yu-seong Kim, Yu-jae Kim, and Min-sol Kwon, took 4th-6h — all with very strong showings. This number of competitive women still in Juniors gives South Korea a great shot at future success if they can continue at the level they are at.
In seventh (but gold in our hearts!) was Young You. Her fantastic short program had her in second going into the long, but her lower technical content level in the long as well as a number of small mistakes dropped her to 7th overall. Regardless, it looks like she will still be on the senior World team due to so many ahead of her being juniors. We can’t wait to see her again!
Ice Dance Competition
This competition was more of an official coronation, since Hannah Lim and Ye Quan were the only team qualified to compete here. They were, as always, a joy to watch while earning first Senior National title— again showing why they are a team of the future!
Where to Watch:
Junhwan Cha
Short Program: https://youtu.be/tv6xrMg1zDc
Free Skate: https://youtu.be/VCLjCwpEnfI
Sihyeong Lee
Short Program: https://youtu.be/wmM2ZURX2dY
Free Skate: https://youtu.be/BOndnJRP2PE
Jia Shin
Short Program: https://youtu.be/qU1S1EKnLA8
Free Skate: https://youtu.be/CBfcUBVwU-0
Young You
Short Program: https://youtu.be/zddcobfO4sU
Free Skate: https://youtu.be/83RD5wH55cc
Haein Lee
Short Program: https://youtu.be/MPWkrRkhQV0
Free Skate: https://youtu.be/83RD5wH55cc
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:21 Korean Nationals Overview
3:24 Men’s Comp and Junhwan Cha
8:40 Sihyeong Lee
11:26 Minkyu Seo
12:11 Junior competitors in Senior Domestic Comps
13:27 Women’s Competition
14:43 Jia Shin
18:22 Haein Lee
21:15 Chaeyeon Kim
22:45 Yeseong Kim and Yijae Kim
23:50 Minsol Kwon
24:33 Young You
28:28 Ice Dance and Hannah Lim & Ye Quan
31:45 Gold in our Hearts
33:57 Wrap-Up
