South Korea's leading men's singles figure skater Cha Jun-hwan (Seoul City Hall) finished in 4th place at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Cha narrowly missed the podium by 0.98 points behind the bronze medalist.

On the 14th, at the men's singles free skating held at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, Cha scored 95.16 points for technical elements (TES), 87.04 points for program components (PCS), and received a 1-point deduction, totaling 181.20 points. Combined with his short program score of 92.72 points, he achieved a final total of 273.92 points, placing behind Mikhail Shaidorov (Kazakhstan, 291.58 points), Yuma Kagiyama (280.06 points), and Shun Sato (274.90 points, all from Japan).

Cha started at 15th place in the 2018 PyeongChang Games, rose to 5th place at the 2022 Beijing Games, and improved one step further in this competition. He was the 19th of 24 competitors to perform. Cha began his free skating program to "Ballade for a Madman."

Cha successfully landed his first jump, the quadruple Salchow, but made a mistake by falling on the following quadruple toe loop. Had he succeeded in this jump, he could have expected a bronze medal, making the result disappointing. Nevertheless, Cha completed the first half with stable triple Lutz-triple loop combination jumps and a triple Axel.

In the second half, Cha maintained his focus. He successfully executed a step sequence (Level 4) along with a triple flip-single Euler-triple Salchow combination jump. He also cleanly performed the triple Axel-double Axel sequence jump. He finished the Olympic stage by landing the final jump, a triple flip, steadily.

After completing all his performances, Cha sat on the ice showing his disappointment. His score fell short of his personal best of 196.39 points and his highest total score of 296.03 points. Cha made history in Korean men's singles figure skating by placing 15th in his first Olympics, 5th in his second, and 4th in this competition.

The gold medal in this competition was won by Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, while Yuma Kagiyama of Japan took the silver medal. Ilia Malinin of the United States, who was considered a strong favorite for the title, delivered his worst performance and finished 8th. Although Cha Jun-hwan did not win a medal at the Olympics, he once again demonstrated the potential of Korean men's figure skating.