Olympic veterans, first-timers looking to push each other at Winter Games

Still only 24 years old, figure skater Cha Jun-hwan is gearing up for his third Winter Olympics already. And he claimed Wednesday he is just as excited about his third one as he was ahead of his Olympic debut eight years ago. "I will try to bring the same enthusiasm and passion to my third Olympics," Cha said at a joint national team press conference at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province. The presser marked the 30-day countdown to the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, and Cha was joined by three other figure skaters bound for Italy — fellow male skater Kim Hyun-gyeom and two women's singles skaters, Shin Ji-a and Lee Hae-in. Cha is the only member of that quartet with prior Olympic experience. He finished 15th at the 2018 PyeongChang Games as a cherubic teenager and ended up in fifth place four years later in Beijing — the best performance by a Korean male singles figure skater. Cha said he expects big things out of his teammates in Milan. "They've been working hard all season long and I am confident they can accomplish whatever they set out toWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times