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[스포츠뉴스]Figure skater Cha Jun-hwan reminisces on teenage Olympic debut, refuses to label 2026 Games as his last

온카뱅크관리자

2026-02-16 12:02:00

<div class="ab_photo photo_center ab_zoom"> <div class="image"> <img src="https://imgnews.pstatic.net/image/640/2026/02/16/0000084516_001_20260216120218629.jpg" alt="" />Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan holds up the national flag during an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo at the Olympic Village in Milan on Feb. 15. [KIM JONG-HO] </div> </div> MILAN &#8212; As Cha Jun-hwan walked through the athletes' village in Milan, the weight he had been carrying for four years seemed, at last, to lift from his shoulders. The figure skater had already lived through two Olympic cycles &#8212; from his teenage debut in Pyeongchang to a hard-earned return in Beijing &#8212; but he said that the road to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games felt like the longest yet. “The Olympics have always been a dream of mine,” Cha said in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo at the Olympic Village in Milan on Sunday. “To stand here for a third time &#8212; I was just so happy.” Two days earlier, the men’s free skate had unfolded with unexpected results. Skating first in the final group, Cha fell on his quadruple toe loop, the second jump of his program. So did the sport’s dominant force, Ilia Malinin of the United States, as well as Malinin’s closest rival, Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama. The mistakes led to speculation that the surface of the ice was too soft. But Cha did not dwell on it. “I watched the last group from the side,” he said. “Beyond their mistakes, every skater’s performance was impressive. I could feel how much effort they had put in, just as I had.” He acknowledged the ice “did feel a little soft” and skating on it “felt slightly more difficult than usual toward the second half.” Now that his competition is over, Cha has allowed himself to become a spectator &#8212; for now. On Friday, he slipped into the stands to watch the races for the short track, cheering as Hwang Dae-heon captured silver in the men’s 1,500 meters and as the women battled in the 3,000-meter relay. Much of figure skating’s tension is solitary, internal and measured in edges and rotations. Short track, on the other hand, is explosive and kinetic, with the drama unfolding in elbows and inches. “It’s a completely different kind of tension,” Cha said. “Watching such fierce competitions made me admire our athletes even more.” Smiling, he added, “This is my third Olympics. I recognize most of the faces now. So I cheered even harder.” If Milan has revealed anything about Korea’s delegation, it is the rise of youth. Teenagers have claimed more than half of the country’s medals so far, with 18-year-old snowboarder Yoo Seung-eun winning bronze in big air, 18-year-old Choi Ga-on winning gold in the halfpipe and 19-year-old short track skater Lim Jong-eon earning bronze. <div class="ab_photo photo_center "> <div class="image"> <img src="https://imgnews.pstatic.net/image/640/2026/02/16/0000084516_002_20260216120218732.jpg" alt="" />Cha Jun-hwan competes in the men's singles free skating final during the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 13. [YONHAP] </div> </div> Watching the current generation succeed, Cha added, “brought back a lot of memories.” He was 17 when he first stepped onto the ice at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. “I didn’t win a medal,” he said, “but I went with a dream.” Outside of competitive skating, Cha’s life follows the discipline expected of an elite skater. Breakfast consists of fruit or cereal and milk. For lunch and dinner, he has small portions of rice, beef and vegetables, all with no heavy sauces. During these Games, he maintained the same regimen. His favorite meal, he confessed with a laugh, was a lunch box provided by the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee &#8212; a rare chance to eat a little more rice. Recently, Vogue Hong Kong named him the most handsome male athlete of the Winter Olympics. When told, Cha broke into a shy, almost embarrassed laugh. Asked to name another contender, he deflected, “There are so many good-looking athletes.” A figure skater’s peak years are often said to lie in the late teens and early twenties. Cha will be 29 when the 2030 Winter Games take place in the French Alps. Some observers already speak of this as his “last dance.” He resisted this framing. “I’ve said ‘third Olympics’ many times,” he said. “But people keep calling it my last. That makes me feel a little disappointed.” He added that he has “just finished the Games” and “needs time to reset,” but that he “doesn’t want to define this as the end.” This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

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