Korean figure skating wins 3 tickets to 2018 Winter Olympics

South Korea has earned two spots for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics through Men’s singles and Ice Dance programs at the International Skating Union (ISU) Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf in Germany. Followed by an Olympic ticket earned by Choi Da-bin through Ladies’ Single at the World Figure Skating Championship in March, Korea has now acquired three tickets out of four Olympic tickets.

Former figure skating champion Lee June-hyoung has revived by winning the Men’s singles title at the Figure Skating Korea Challenge, the first qualifying competition for the Winter Olympics, in July, after suffering a back injury from a car accident in 2015. By virtue of winning the July event, Lee was qualified to compete at the Nebelhorn Trophy.

Some expected that Lee could have confronted difficulties during the game as he does not attempt quadruple jumps, which is key for a male single skater to acquire a high score. Nevertheless, he set a new personal best ISU score of 222.89 points in total at the latest event. The 20-year-old figure skater ranked fifth at the Nebelhorn Trophy, which earned Korea one of the six Olympic tickets that are given to top skaters of the competition. Korean Men’s single will play at the Winter Olympics in 16 years since the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games Olympics. “Lee June-hyoung has achieved his goal by not attempting risky quadruple jump but focusing on stable acting and delicate expression‎,” the Korea Skating Union assessed.

“I’m grateful because my hard work paid off,” Lee said. “I still have two more rounds of South Korean Olympic trials to compete. I will try to make my quadruple jumps perfect.” Lee has presented Korea with a spot at the Winter Olympics, but he needs to beat his fellow competitors to participate at the PyeongChang Olympics.

Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com