(Olympics) Figure skater sees room for improvement after ranking 6th in Olympic debut

▲ You Young of South Korea performs her free skate in the women's singles figure skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Feb. 17, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ You Young of South Korea performs her free skate in the women's singles figure skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Feb. 17, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ You Young of South Korea takes a moment after performing her free skate in the women's singles figure skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Feb. 17, 2022. (Yonhap)

(Olympics) figure skater-performance

(Olympics) Figure skater sees room for improvement after ranking 6th in Olympic debut

By Yoo Jee-ho

BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) -- When You Young looked up at the final scoreboard in the women's singles figure skating competition at Beijing 2022 on Thursday, she saw five skaters above her.

The South Korean teenager also saw room for growth.

You finished sixth overall with 213.09 points, after earning 142.75 points in the free skate at Capital Indoor Stadium.

You didn't have any glaring flaws in her technical elements, but she lost precious points for under-rotating two of her jumps: her opening triple axel and later a triple toe loop.

"In both my short program and free skate, I didn't have any huge mistakes. I am quite satisfied with that," You said. "I am a bit disappointed with my ranking position and score, but that only means I can continue to grow even more. I am ready to put in the work."

Much of You's success depended on her execution of the triple axel, the most difficult jump in her program with the base score of 8.00 points. In the short program on Tuesday, her triple axel was downgraded to a double axel, costing her 3.70 points in the base score. The under-rotation on Thursday cost You 1.60 points in the base score.

"My triple axel isn't quite where I want it to be," You said. "I'll just have to keep working harder and harder."

The triple axel is the most challenging triple jump. The gold medalist from Russia, Anna Shcherbakova, landed two quadruple jumps in her free skate for the title. Her countrywoman Alexandra Trusova landed a stunning five quad jumps to leap from fourth place after the short program to silver medal after the free skate.

The men's figure skating has already been moving in the "jump first, ask questions later" direction. With the technically-advanced Russian teenagers leading the way, quad jumps are increasingly becoming a key part of women's figure skating, too.

Asked if she will join the fray and add a quad jump to her routine, You, 17 quipped, "I would love to, but my body isn't what it used to be."

"I'll still try to put it in my program," You said.

(END)

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