Cha Junhwan, the leading figure in Korean men's figure skating, made a mistake on one of his jumps in the free program and narrowly missed out on the bronze medal by just 0.98 points.
Cha scored 95.16 points in technical elements and 87.04 points in program components, for a total of 181.20 points in the men's singles free program at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, held at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on the 14th (Korean time). Adding the 92.72 points he earned in the short program on the 11th, he posted a combined total of 273.92 points and finished in fourth place overall. He fell just 0.98 points short of Japan's Shun Sato, who took the bronze medal with 274.90 points.
Cha Junhwan delivered an elegant performance in the men's singles free program at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on the 14th (Korean time) at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy. Photo by Yonhap News
By finishing fourth in the combined short and free program standings, one spot higher than at the 2022 Beijing Games, Cha concluded his journey at his third Olympic Games.
In the free program, where 24 skaters competed, Cha skated as the first skater in the final fourth group.
Cha made a smooth start by easily landing his opening jump, a quadruple Salchow. However, he then failed to land his second jump element, a quadruple toe loop, and took a hard fall. He slid all the way toward the end of the rink and brushed lightly against the boards, but quickly got back up and refocused on his performance.
He then cleanly executed a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination and successfully navigated the triple Axel. From that point on, he finished the program without any noticeable mistakes. He delivered an elegant step sequence and stably completed a jumping pass consisting of a triple toe loop, a single Euler, and a triple Salchow. He also landed a triple Axel-double Axel combination. Cha wrapped up his performance with a flying camel spin followed by a flying change-foot combination spin.
Cha Junwhan sits down on the ice after finishing his free program performance in the men's singles at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on the 14th (Korean time). Photo by Yonhap News
After finishing his program, Cha showed a faint smile. Although he clearly regretted the jump error, he appeared more relieved than anything else. Unlike in the short program, where he delivered a flawless performance, he had a jump mistake here, but he still left the ice with a smile.
After checking his score in the kiss-and-cry zone, he let out a slight sigh, revealing his disappointment, but soon broke into a bright smile again.
The gold medal went to Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov, who scored a total of 291.58 points. The silver medal was claimed by Japan's Yuma Kagiyama with 280.06 points.
Ilya Malinin of the United States, who had taken first place in the short program after performing a backflip, skated last in the free program on this day, but made two jump errors and dropped to eighth place overall.
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