The State of Korean Figure Skating Pt. 2
I'm back! Let's talk about the rest of the Korean fields: starting with the men!
Link to women here :)
Cha Junhwan/Seo Minkyu
The singular worlds spot the Korean men have next year will be duel to the death between these two. (jk, unless...)
차준환 Cha Junhwan
Coach: Chi Hyunjung
Senior Titles: 2023 World Silver Medalist, 2025 Asian Winter Games Champion, 2019 GPF Bronze Medalist, 9x National Champion, 2022 4CC Champion, 2x 4CC Silver Medalist, and 2024 4CC Bronze Medalist.
Mr. Figure Prince with perpetually messed up ankles himself, Cha Junhwan!! Jun's been dominating and setting records for Korean men for almost a decade now and this might be the first time he's being challenged domestically.
Jun's had a very long career and a lot of fun lore to him! He a genuine celebrity in Korea for his success and good looks (they literally call him "the face" and "figure prince" lmao), an actor, and my favorite bit of lore is Jun skating for his freedom at the Asian Winter Games (he was eligible for military service exemption if he won gold -- and that he did!)
Jun's a very artistic skater, his man does NOT miss levels in his spins or step sequences!! Beyond that he has great skating skills, he's fast, has great ice coverage, and truly just glides across the ice. On top of that, Jun's a fantastic performer! His skating is very elegant and captivating and I feel like he has a wide range of performance styles as well.
The only place he lags behind a little bit is in jumping. He has a beautiful 4S and 4T, but a very shaky 3A. Jun also has a very persistent ankle injury that causes prevents him from chasing those big ticket jumps (ei. a 4F, 4Lo, or 4Lz).
I'm a bit worried for Jun next season. I think he'll be fine domestically, but the very narrow 4th place finish (ROBBERY HE SHOULD HAVE BEE 3RD AND HE KNOWS IT TOO) at Milano seems to have been very demotivating for him. He also seems to be busy doing pursuing other ventures like ice shows and acting again. This isn't to doom about Jun retiring but I also want to be realistic and honest about his career outlook, and if Jun decides he wants to retire this season or pull a Shoma and retire mid-quad, I'll thank him for the years of amazing performances he has given us.
서민규 Seo Minkyu
Coach: Kim Eunju & Choi Hyungkyung
Senior Titles: 3x South Korean silver medalist, 2x South Korean bronze medalist
I'm so excited for Minkyu senior debut!! On the junior level, he's the 2024 Junior World Champion, 2x JW silver medalist, 2025 JGPF Champion and the 2024 JGPF silver medalist. He had a rivalry with Japan's Rio Nakata that truly pushed both of them to be better (VERY STRONG YUNAMAO VIBES!!)
I'll paraphrase my GPF predictions post here but Minkyu's very similar to Jun, in which great skating skills, struggles with the jumps. Minkyu has great skating skills and artistry (specifically musicality) despite being so young. He definitely has some more room for improvement in his performance ability (I'd argue he's an artist but not really a showman yet) but the greatest thing holding him back is that he only has a 4S. He's posted videos of him landing a 4T in practice this offseason and I hope it's consistent enough for him to try over the season!
Truthfully, I don't see Minkyu surpassing Jun this upcoming season but I wouldn't be surprised if over this next quad, the KSU soon starts to promote Minkyu as Korea's top man over Jun and we start to transition out of the Cha Junhwan era of Korean men's skating.
Kim Hyungyeom/Cha Younghyun
김현겸 Kim Hyungyeom
Coach: Choi Hyungkyung
Senior Titles: 2023 South Korean Silver Medalist; 2x fourth place at Korean Nationals
Hyungyeom's had a crazy last junior season. Despite not having much success as a junior, during the 2023-24 season, Hyungyeom began the 2024 Youth Olympic Champion in both the team and men's singles event. He got silver and gold at both his JGP events and got silver at grand prix final.
Unfortunately, that did not transfer into senior success as he got 18th at year's senior world championships and has middling results ever since.
Hyungyeom's just not a very refined skater. His technique leads to frequent underrotations, his lutz and flip edges aren't very clear, and he often misses levels on spins and step sequences leading to a slow death by a thousand cuts in points for him. He also only has a 4T and in a men's skating landscape where quads seem and consistency is valued very highly, these aren't the greatest traits to have. HOWEVER, Hyungyeom is very very very fast and has an explosive quality to his skating I really enjoy. I think a reasonable goal for him would be to try and impress at Skate Canada, try to medal at Nationals, and go to 4CC.
차영현 Cha Younghyun
Coach: Choi Hyungkyung
Senior Titles: 2021 South Korean Bronze Medalist
Younghyun had a real standout moment at 2026 Worlds! After Jun withdrew, Younghyun had a chance to go to Worlds and despite getting 27th and not advancing to the free program, he went viral for his Irish dance step sequence to River Dance!
To be truthful, Younghyun's not exactly going to be a regular international competitor, but he's real joy to watch and he has the very cool hobby of being a traditional Korean tightrope dancer!
Like Hyungyeom, Younghyun's not very refined and he doesn't have any big ticket items like immense artistry or quad jumps but I think it's possible for him to eek out a second Four Continents entry!
And that's it for the men! The other two notable competitors Korea has is Lee Jaekeun and Choi Habin.
Habin's coached by Choi Hyungkyung and a son of Nathan Chen, jumping is his happy place and he is not shy about it! He's the first Korean athlete to have landed a 4Lz and is currently ranked number 1 amongst juniors (technically 3rd but 1 and 2 are Rio and Minkyu so I feel like it counts), but he's got another junior season within him.
Likewise, Lee Jaekeun, coached by Chi Hyunjung, got 5th at nationals (above Younghyun) and while he is eligible for senior competitions, the KSU assigns does not let skaters do split seasons (that's why Younghyun went to Worlds instead of Jaekeun). Since Jaekeun is still eligible for junior competitions and competed in the Korea junior grand prix qualification competition, he will be competing as junior the for upcoming season.
But wait! Have you noticed something across these two posts? Look at the coaches again...
Have you noticed that nearly everyone's coached by Chi Hyunjung or Choi Hyungkyung?
THE DOMINANCE OF CHI & CHOI
Chi and Choi have had a death grip on the Korean singles field for the past several years. During the 2026 Nationals, 77% (!!) of the field were coached by one of these two women. Individually, Chi is coaching 30% of the men, 35% of the women (33% of the field) and Choi is coaching 50% of the men and 42% of the women (44% of the field). Only 8 of the 36 singles skaters were not coached by Chi or Choi.
Both women have a very similar story, they were both former competitive skaters that skated at two world championships and were coached by Yuna Kim's coach from childhood and the end of her career, Shin Heasook. Chi even briefly coached Yuna herself during Yuna's junior debut season.
Chi's a bit more of an established coach and she focuses more on refining a skater, getting jumps consistent, and getting high GOEs on elements. Some qualities of her skaters are that they tend to be fast and have huge jumps. Her current students are Shin Jia, Lee Haein, Yun Ahsun, Lee Jaekeun, and Cha Junhwan.
Choi's rise is much more recent and she seems to be following the Eteri model, where her skaters have very fast progress and the camp has a focus on ultra Cs but these jumps tend to be small and overall don't have the highest GOEs. Currently she's coaching Choi Habin, Kim Hyungyeom, Cha Younghyun, Kim Yujae, Kim Yuseong, Youn Seojin, Kim Chaeyeon, Kim Seoyoung, and Seo Minkyu (though truthfully Minkyu's coached more by his mother). She also coached Kim Yelim and Lee Sihyeong!
Korean skaters tend to switch between the two pretty often but this coaching dominance have led to some things like packaging issues within the Korean field.
Perhaps the most common critique of Korean skaters I see as a whole, is that they are very similarly packaged. Packaging is the material skaters give and the ungraded presentational parts of skater's performance, ei. music, choreography, and costumes. In general, it seems like Chi and Choi have this image of an elegant and classical skater they project onto most of their students.
Here's an example of skaters having very similar packaging
These were Minkyu, Hyungyeom, Jaekeun, and Habin's costumes from LAST SEASON!! This is not a good thing when trying to make yourself stand out from your teammates or competitors.
It's also not the best vehicle when trying to showcase a skater's strengths as an artist and performer. While some are made for classical/classical sounding music, such as Shin Jia, Lee Haein, and Seo Minkyu, not everyone is suited to classical music and that's okay! You Young (who is NOT part of that cohort) is very well suited to dramatic movie soundtracks, pop songs and tangos and if she was only skating to Chopin, it would be a detriment to her performances.
Habin is an example of someone that I think got ill fitting music. Last season, Habin really came alive during his free to the upbeat, EDM remix of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack! In contrast, his short to Taegukgi didn't really suit his performance style. Habin's a very "loud", aggressive, and in your face skater but the cut of Taegukgi is very grand and all consuming with angelic vocals and dramatic violins layering on top of each other. This is music I would have given to Minkyu, not Habin.
This is definitely a problem that extends to the women as well, which is why Chaeyeon was so eyecatching! Chaeyeon immediately stood out with her edgier costumes and music choices as well as her choreography seeming to emphasize power more than other Korean skaters.
And that's the Korean singles field! The women are deep field and the men are starting to deepen, but unfortunately, I think it's getting a bit boxed in by how homogenous the coaching has become.
I don't think Chi or Choi are doing anything malicious or necessarily bad here, I just think when SEVENTY SEVEN percent of a national field runs through two camps, you're going to get some sameness whether you mean to or not.
What I'm hoping for this season from this field that more of these skaters and their teams start experimenting a little more with music and packaging that fits who they actually are as performers rather than the in-house style Chi and Choi seem to have. Give Habin music that suits his energy! Make the Kim twins distinct from each other! Don't dress your skaters identically to three other guys!!
Korea has so many amazing skaters with very distinct personalities and strengths from each other, and I'd love to see all of that get to be a little more distinct on the ice.
Here's to a fun (and hopefully not too heartbreaking) season ahead~~
