Shin Ji-ah enters the top 10 in her first world championship since her senior debut

Figure skating women's single Ji-ah Shin (Sehwa Girls' High School) succeeded in entering the top 10 by placing 8th in her first senior world championships.

Shin Ji-ah scored 71.05 technical score (TES), 65.60 artistic score (PCS), and 136.65 points in the women's single free skating at the 2026 International Skating Union (ISU) Figure Skating World Championships held at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic on the 28th (local time). He ranked 8th with a final total score of 201.89 points, including 65.24 points in the short program.

Shin Ji-ah, who was active on the junior stage until last year, debuted on the senior stage this season when she turned 17. In accordance with the free skating program 'Dream of Love', she neatly performed the double Axel and triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination jumps, and continued her clean march to the triple salchow and triple loop. There was a mistake in the second half of the triple flip combination where it was treated as a single jump, but it was later made up for with a triple flip-double axel sequence and a triple lutz-double toe loop-double loop combination.

Lee Hae-in, 13th, failed to enter the top 10 due to a jumping mistake

Lee Hae-in (Korea University), who also competed, ranked 13th with TES of 55.49 points, PCS of 61.19 points, total score of 116.68 points, and final total score of 185.18 points. Unfortunately, the challenge to top 10 for 6 consecutive years failed. Lee Hae-in succeeded in the double axel-triple toe loop and triple lutz-double toe loop-double loop combinations, but her score was significantly reduced as she treated the triple loop as a single and the late triple lutz and triple flip as doubles and singles, respectively.

Korean women's figure skating secures two-person qualification for next year's World Championships

Thanks to the two athletes' excellent performance, Korean women's figure skating secured two qualifications to participate in next year's World Championships. At the World Championships, the right to participate in the next competition is allocated according to the sum of the rankings of athletes from each country in each event, and when two players participate, if the sum of their rankings is 28 or less, two tickets are given. The combined rankings of Shin Ji-ah (8th) and Lee Hae-in (13th) met the standard with 21.

Kaori Sakamoto retires after becoming world champion for the fourth time

The winner was Japan's Kaori Sakamoto (238.28 points), who is retiring after this competition. Sakamoto, who won three consecutive championships from 2022 to 2024, stayed at the silver medal last year, but said a tearful goodbye by regaining the throne this year and recording a personal high score. The silver medal was won by Chiba Monet (228.47 points, Japan), and the bronze medal was won by Nina Pinjaroner (215.20 points, Belgium).

Meanwhile, the team of Lim Hae-na and Kwon Ye (competition general), who participated in the ice dance rhythm dance on the same day, ranked 19th out of 31 teams with a total score of 69.83 points and succeeded in advancing to the free dance.