South Korea’s top women’s singles figure skater, Shin Ji-a (Sehwa Girls’ High School), will make her Olympic debut on Thursday as the figure skating team event begins.
Shin is scheduled to skate the women’s singles short program in the team event at 9:35 p.m. (Korea time) at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy at the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Olympics.
A standout since her junior days, Shin won silver at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Junior Championships four straight years from 2022 to 2025. This season, however, she has struggled somewhat in international events amid physical changes.
She did not contend for medals in two ISU Grand Prix events and finished sixth at last month’s Four Continents Championships.
After arriving in Milan on Wednesday, Shin said she had regained confidence. “I think I made up for it to some extent in the free skating at the Four Continents Championships, and I got my confidence back,” she said.
Only 10 countries qualify for the figure skating team event based on international results. South Korea are competing for the first time since the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, but without a pairs team they will skate only men’s and women’s singles and ice dance, making a podium finish difficult.
The event is expected to help athletes preparing for the individual competition get used to the arena atmosphere and ice conditions. Shin will perform her short program to Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20.
Before the women’s short program, Lim Hae-na and Kwon Ye (Gyeonggi Province) will skate in the team event ice dance at 5:55 p.m.
In curling mixed doubles, the South Korean pair of Kim Sun-young (Gangneung City Hall) and Jeong Young-seok (Gangwon Province Office) will play Britain in their fourth round-robin game at 10:35 p.m. at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
Kim and Jeong have lost all three of their matches so far.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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