Korean skating news, 2026 onward

[Sylvia]

Haien Lee spent a week training with Tatyana Malinina & Roman Skorniakov in VA:

Haein Lee 🤍 on Instagram: "🇺🇸🧡 Thank you Tatyana and Roman for a great week of training and for all your help and support ! 🤍 #us #figureskating #training #new #season"

2,227 likes, 66 comments - happy_haein05 on August 17, 2026: "🇺🇸🧡 Thank you Tatyana and Roman for a great week of training and for all your help and support ! 🤍 #us #figureskating #training #new #season".

www.instagram.com

Interview in Korean with Hannah Kim & Ye Quan (Aug. 11):

[인터뷰] 김기현·권예 조, 한국 대표 시니어 아이스댄스 새 팀으로 출발

(블레이드뉴스 윤지원) 대한민국에 새로운 시니어 아이스댄스 팀이 탄생했다. 미국 솔로 댄스 무대를 누비던 김기현 선수와, 2026 밀라노·코르티나담페초 동계올림픽 무대를 밟았던 권예 선수가 바로 그 주인공이다. 함께 훈련을 시작한 지는 이제 한 달여, 서로를 알아가는 단계에 있는 두 사람에게 새 팀의 시작과 이번 시즌을 향한 각오를 물었다. Q1. 새로운 팀으로 함께하게 되면서, 처음 서로를 파트너로 만났을 때 어떤 느낌을 받으셨는지 궁금합니다. 권예: 음, 사실 저희의 트라이아웃 때 첫 만남 이야기가 꽤 재밌는데요, 제가...

bladenews.kr

I posted machine translated excerpts in the Dance Hall thread: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...ltz-tango-foxtrot.113856/page-13#post-6945606

 

[spin2win]

Interview in Korean with Minkyu Seo (August 19th): link

• Going to hospital every week for treatment and rehabilitation of ankle injury, every other day jumping
• he really likes the steps in his short and choreography in free, trying to emphasize performance this year
• biggest attention item is managing his physical condition to make it through whole season
• big goal is to deliver clean skates at both GP assignments (France and China)
• Kinoshita will be his only challenger of year
• 4T is not stable, training physical strength to try to get it in program this year
• coaches say to enjoy performances, family says consistency is most important
• results and scores not important to him this season, most important is not getting injured and continuing to grow

 

[Sylvia]

Gyujin Hwang, who turned 14 in July and finished 15th in his JGP debut, sang part of his own FS!

Figure Skating Archive ⛸ on Instagram: "Korean junior skater Gyujin Hwang caught attention at last week’s JGP Xi’an, taking the ice with a free skate featuring a recording of his own voice 🥹🎤 Skating to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Hwang c

248 likes, 6 comments - elegant_skaters on August 25, 2026: "Korean junior skater Gyujin Hwang caught attention at last week’s JGP Xi’an, taking the ice with a free skate featuring a recording of his own voice 🥹🎤 Skating to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Hwang combines his soft...

www.instagram.com

Korean junior skater Gyujin Hwang caught attention at last week’s JGP Xi’an, taking the ice with a free skate featuring a recording of his own voice
Skating to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Hwang combines his soft, beautiful vocals with fast, dynamic skating, creating a performance that feels uniquely his own
Music runs in the family — his father is a well-known rock musician in Korea, and Gyujin seems to have inherited that natural musicality
Making his Junior Grand Prix debut in Xi’an, Gyujin has already shown impressive growth and plenty of potential.
His next stop: JGP Batumi
A bright future lies ahead for this rising talent
Keep sharing that beautiful voice, beautiful skating, and the talent to amaze

Team Korea's results at JGP #1 in Xi'an:
Men:
15th Gyujin HWANG KOR 163.76 13 17
16th Yesung KIM KOR 162.24 16 14
9th in Women: Jeongyul HWANG KOR 165.45 5 12
15th in Ice Dance: Leina YOU / Henrick CHAN KOR 109.64 17 14

 

[Evgeniafan]

Gyujin Hwang, who turned 14 in July and finished 15th in his JGP debut, sang part of his own FS!

Figure Skating Archive ⛸ on Instagram: "Korean junior skater Gyujin Hwang caught attention at last week’s JGP Xi’an, taking the ice with a free skate featuring a recording of his own voice 🥹🎤 Skating to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Hwang c

248 likes, 6 comments - elegant_skaters on August 25, 2026: "Korean junior skater Gyujin Hwang caught attention at last week’s JGP Xi’an, taking the ice with a free skate featuring a recording of his own voice 🥹🎤 Skating to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Hwang combines his soft...

www.instagram.com

Team Korea's results at JGP #1 in Xi'an:
Men:
15th Gyujin HWANG KOR 163.76 13 17
16th Yesung KIM KOR 162.24 16 14
9th in Women: Jeongyul HWANG KOR 165.45 5 12
15th in Ice Dance: Leina YOU / Henrick CHAN KOR 109.64 17 14

He is adorable.

 

[alexikeguchi]

Habin Choi was really impressive in his FS today. He still needs to work on interpretation but my goodness, what a technical tour de force! Highlights were how he maintained momentum through 3A-2A-Eu-3S and the cool knee spin/illusion for his choreo spin feature. I don't pay much attention to the JGP and hadn't seen his performances in prior years, but I really look forward to seeing him as a senior next year.

 

[Sylvia]

Habin Choi was really impressive in his FS today. He still needs to work on interpretation but my goodness, what a technical tour de force!

FS to POTO (4Lz+3T, 4Lz, 4T, 3A+2A+Eu+3S seq., 3A, 3Lz, L4 for both spins and not a single negative GOE in his FS protocol!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_7hkq2HeWs

JGP Riga results:
GOLD Habin CHOI KOR 246.41 5 1
SILVER Jaekeun LEE KOR 229.77 2 2

Jaekeun's lovely SP (3Lz, 3A, 3Lo+3T, all L4 spins; kept "Mi Mancherai" from last season when he skated Senior): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wic940ithn4

FS scores:
1 Habin CHOI KOR 170.20 98.70 71.50 6.86 7.11 7.50 0.00 #23
2 Jaekeun LEE KOR 146.57 75.11 71.46 7.07 7.00 7.39 0.00 #26 (4Tq, 3A+3T, 3Lz, 3A, 3Lo+Eu+2S+2A seq., 3Lo) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtiDZOWPwxs

ETA a news article in English:

Next-Level Quadruple Jumps: Figure Skating Rising Star Choi Ha-bin Claims Comeback Gold After Ranking 5th in Short Program

16-year-old figure skating rising star Choi Ha-bin soared in brilliant fashion to capture a dramatic come-from-behind gold medal at the Junior Grand Prix.

news.sbs.co.kr

 

[spin2win]

Young You new interview (in korean, machine translated)

• Happy to have been able to compete last season
• struggled to book ice time and be able to skate until she was allowed back into national team at the end of 2025
• trying to focus on expressiveness
• SP will be from Schindler's List, but a rendition with more violin melodies; trying to make people cry with program
• free will be completely opposite, a known dance track piece that is fast paced and requires a lot of body movement
• declared her 3 jump sequence in free will be 3F+2A+2A
• targets for season: qualify for winter universiade, do well at NHK trophy (this was before she got skate america), do well at president's cup ranking competition and nationals
• wanted to go to CS kinoshita but backed out after realizing schedule was too tight and level of competition would make it hard to get more assignments (?)
• wants to show old form [from beijing quad i assume]

Hyungyeom Kim new interview (in korean, machine translated)

• felt special pressure at Olympics and made mistakes as a result, weighted heavily on him
• he watched the free skate at olympics with kao miura and had a good time
• he did a michael jackson program for a gala in offseason based on an elementary school routine he did, had fun and glad fans liked it
• adapting to rule changes, planning to put a 3A in the second half of free program, trying to elevate choreography
• Took coaching this summer from Daisuke Takahashi and Kana Muramoto on expression, upper body movements, eye contact
• the interviewer asked about his jump plan in free skate, he plans to jump 2 quad toes, a 3A in second half, and an +Eu+3S 3 jump combo; also wants to add 4S in future that he practiced in past
• he brought back old programs for both short and free and is reusing old costumes for both as well; he hopes his work with Takahashi will make them feel different
• he has good memories of canada, looking forward to his GP assignment at Skate Canada
• Kinoshita will be his only challenger
• he was appointed public relations ambassador for sejong city sports council

 

[Sylvia]

Minkyu Seo's amazing 1st place FS (scored 180.88) at Kinoshita Group Cup - his Challenger Series and ISU Senior international debut competition in which he finished 4th overall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u6Hwq8GvZM

His FS protocol:
1 4S+3T 13.90 3.30 3 3 4 4 3 4 3 17.20
2 4S 9.70 2.91 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 12.61
3 3A 8.00 0.64 0 1 1 0 1 1 2 8.64
4 CCoSp4 4.20 0.84 1 2 2 2 3 2 2 5.04
5 3A+Eu+3S+2A+SEQ 17.16 x 2.08 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 19.24
6 3Lo 5.39 x 0.98 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 6.37
7 3F 5.83 x 1.17 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 7.00
8 StSq3 3.50 1.19 4 2 2 3 4 4 4 4.69
9 FCSp3 3.40 0.68 2 2 2 0 2 3 2 4.08
10 ChSq1 3.50 2.40 5 4 5 4 5 5 5 5.90
11 ChSp1 3.50 2.40 5 4 5 4 5 5 5 5.90
Base Value Total 78.08 + GOEs = 95.97 TES

Program Components Factor
Composition 3.33 8.50 8.50 8.50 7.50 8.50 8.25 8.50 8.45
Presentation 3.33 9.00 8.75 8.25 8.00 9.00 8.50 8.75 8.65
Skating Skills 3.33 8.75 8.50 8.25 8.00 8.50 8.25 8.50 8.40
Judges Total Program Component Score (factored) 84.91

 

[spin2win]

I am qualifying this as news because Junwhan Cha was announced as a presenter for the Korean Grand Music Awards.

The award show dates clash with his scheduled GP assignment at Cup of China.