Shin Jia wins silver at ISU World Junior Championships

Shin Jia, a 14-year-old South Korean figure skater, has come up to the podium at the 2022 ISU Figure Skating Junior Championships as the first Korean to do so in 16 years since Kim Yuna won medals in 2006.

In the women’s single free skating at the 2022 ISU Figure Skating World Junior Championships held in Tallinn, Estonia, Shin Jia won a total of 136.63 points, the highest among 24 contenders. Having earned 69.38 points in the short program a day earlier, Shin won silver medal with an aggregate 206.01 points. The difference was only 0.54 points from Isabo Levito of the United States who won the gold.

Born on March 19, 2008, Shin is one of the youngest contestants both male and female along with the German skater ranked 22nd. The World Junior Championships are open to athletes between the age of 13 and 19 in international ages as of July 1 of the previous year to the opening season. This year, the skaters from Russia and Belarus did not attend the event.

Shin’s silver is the first medal that a South Korean figure skater has won in the ISU competitions in 16 years since Kim Yuna. Kim won silver and gold in 2005 and 2006, respectively in the World Junior Championships. In 2017, Lim Eun-soo finished the race in the fourth in the women’s single free skating, and Cha Joon-hwan was ranked in the fifth in 2017 in the men’s single, which have been the best records since Kim Yuna.

Shin Jia has set a record as the youngest Korean skater to win medals, one year earlier than Kim in 2015, who was 15 years old back then. “I am so happy that I was able to win the medal for the first time since Yuna in 16 years,” said Shin Jia. “I was satisfied with my own performance, and I never expected to win the silver medal, but it still feels great.”


hun@donga.com