"He Threw Without Regret" – Cha Jun-hwan’s Fist Pump, but the ‘Wall of Monsters’ Was Too High [Milan 2026]

On the ice, the competitor had no regrets. After his performance, Cha Jun-hwan clenched his fist, let out a roar, and broke into a bright smile. Yet the wall separating him from the world’s very best proved brutally high. Even though he poured out everything he had, the Olympic top five, crowded with "monsters," remained out of reach.
Cha Jun-hwan, the leading figure skater for South Korea (25, Seoul City Hall), scored 92.72 points in the men’s singles short program at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on the 11th (Korean time) at the Milan–Cortina d’Ampezzo 2026 Winter Olympics. He earned 50.08 points in technical elements (TES) and 42.64 points in program components (PCS).
It was his best score of the season. Even so, he finished the short program in 6th place. He secured a foothold in the chase for the medals, but had to swallow his disappointment in the face of the overwhelming quality shown by the skaters above him.

Skating 15th overall, Cha stepped onto the ice and surrendered himself to the music of "Rain in Your Black Eyes."
The mistakes he made in the team event turned into fuel. He opened with a difficult quadruple Salchow and landed it perfectly for a sharp start. Even the "cursed" section where he had made a painful error in the team event, the triple Axel, was executed cleanly this time.
His triple Lutz–triple loop combination jump was just as solid. He also earned Level 4 on his spins and step sequence. It was, in every sense, a clean, error-free skate. The way Cha pumped his fist right after finishing was proof of how satisfied he was with his own performance.
Speaking in the mixed zone, Cha said, "In this moment today, I threw everything I had so that I wouldn’t regret even a single point," and added, "I’m a little disappointed with the score, but I put in enough heart to shake off that disappointment." It was the look of a skater who had completely shaken off the early-season slump caused by boot problems.

But the night in Milan was unusually hot. While Cha delivered the best performance from the "human realm," his main rivals were showing off skills that seemed to belong to another world.
First place went to America’s "jump monster" Ilia Malinin. Treating the quadruple flip and quadruple Lutz like toys, Malinin even pulled out a backflip, a move long considered taboo in figure skating, and posted a staggering 108.16 points. Skating last, Japan’s Kagiyama Yuma scored 103.07 points to take second, followed by France’s Adam Siao Him Fa with 102.55 points.
As a result, Cha heads into the free skating 9.83 points behind the bronze-medal position in third place. That is by no means a small gap. It will be difficult to overturn it on his own without mistakes from others.

Still, the contest is far from over. On the 14th, Cha will attempt a dramatic comeback in the free skating to the music of "Ballade for the Madman." He even took the gamble of changing his program right before the Olympics.
Cha, who said, "The sense of achievement you get from doing your best matters more than the result," has left the outcome to the heavens, just as he put it. All that remains for him now is to carry the perfect feeling from the short into the free and burn his final flames on the ice in Milan.
In a jungle teeming with monsters, the nation’s eyes are fixed on Cha Jun-hwan’s lonely fight and his "last dance."
jsi@fnnews.com Jeon Sang-il Reporter