Korea has 12-year-old figure skater trying quadruple jump

After a little more than two years since Kim Yu-na’s retirement, a new sensation has emerged in Korean figure skating. Yoo Young (12), who is considered a successor to Kim Yu-na, is attempting quadruple (four spins) jumps going beyond a triple axel jump. At the "18th national promising young male and female figure skating championship" held at Taeneung Ice Rink in Seoul on Sunday, Yoo tried a quadruple (4 spins) salco as her first jump in the elementary student free skating competition.

Yoo saw her grade of execution (GOE) score fall by as much as 1.93 points because she had a two-foot landing, with the number of her spins also lacking, but it was the first time that a Korean female skater tried a quadruple jump in an official figure skating championship.

A quadruple jump was a technique that had been only performed by male athletes. Hanyu Yuzuru, the winner of the men’s single competition at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, can perform quadruple salco, quadruple lutz, and quadruple loop jumps. A quadruple jump is a technique that a male skater definitely needs in order to be competitive in international championships.

The only Korean male skater that has successfully performed a quadruple jump in an international competition is Cha Joon-hwan (15), who is considered Korea’s next-generation male figure skater. Cha succeeded in a quadruple salco, which offers the basic score of 10.50 points, in the third ISU Junior Grand Prix Championship in September.

“I continuously exercise a quadruple jump, but I am not quite ready to display it in a major competition,” Yoo Young said. “I attempted the jump as if I was performing in a real competition.”

“Yoo Young nicely performed quadruple jumps before the opening of the competition. I think she was nervous because she performed in a real competition,” said Koh Seong-hee, the director of judges at the Korea Skating Union. “Since she started jumping quadruple jumps, other skaters may have gotten stimulated as well. When considering the entire Korean figure skating community, it will bring about positive impact.”

이헌재 기자uni@donga.com