At the moment of perfect 金왕자, the figure prince covered his face and Min-gyu Seo won the junior figure skating for the first time in history
'Men's Figure Skating Star' Lee Min-kyu (Kyung Shin-go) became the first Korean male to win the Junior Grand Prix Final of the International Skating Union (ISU).
In the men's single free skate at the 2025-2026 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final held at IG Arena in Nagoya, Japan on the 5th (Korea time), Seo Min-kyu received 91.64 points in technical score (TES), 79.45 points in artistic score (PCS), and 171.09 points in total. With a total of 84.82 points from the short program, the final score of 255.91 points pushed Japan's Nakata Rio (249.70 points) to second place to win the historic first gold medal.
The Junior Grand Prix Final is a king of kings competition with six athletes, the highest ranking in seven junior grand prix this season, with athletes under the age of 17. Seo Min-gyu, who performed 'all clean' in the short program the previous day, competed in the free skate with a flawless and perfect performance. The first task, the high-level quadruple salco, was neatly successful, and the triple axel-triple torup combination jump was also perfectly performed. After stably performing the last jump and triple loop in the first half, Seo Min-kyu performed flying Carmel spin at level 4, the highest difficulty, and showed perfect performance until the last jump task triple salco, following the triple lutz-double axel-double axel sequence jump in the second half. After completing the last level 4 high-level performance with a clean finish, Seo Min-gyu expressed joy beyond adding joy by wrapping his face with his hands as if he were thrilled by himself. The national flag wavered at Nagoya Arena.
It was the moment when Korean men's figure skating made history for the first time. In addition to breaking an individual record, Seo Min-kyu also shook off his disappointment of winning the runner-up prize last year. The Korean players' all-time best performances in the tournament were last year's Seo Min-gyu and 2023's Kim Hyun-gyeom (Korea University). It is the first win in 16 years since Kim Yu-na (retired) in December 2009.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
