Cha Young-hyun

Cha Young-hyun (born September 24, 2003) is a South Korean figure skater and a tightrope dancer (eoreum-sani) of Namsadang. He is the 2017 South Korean national junior champion and the 2021 South Korean national bronze medalist. He has competed in the final segment at two ISU Championships (2018 World Junior Championships, 2019 World Junior Championships).

Personal life
Cha was born on September 24, 2003, in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. He is currently a student at Korea University.

Early career
Cha started skating in 2007. He performed traditional Korean tightrope dancing in 2011 and holds the record as the youngest tightrope dancer (eoreum-sani) of Namsadang at eight years old.

2017-2018 season
Cha made his international debut at the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit in Italy, where he finished in sixteenth place. Following a fifth-place finish at the 2018 South Korean Figure Skating Championships, Cha was selected to compete at the 2018 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, where he placed nineteenth.

Following the season, Cha made a coaching change from Lee Eun-hee to Hong Ye-Seul.

2018-2019 season
Cha began his season with eighth and seventh place finishes at 2018 JGP Austria and 2018 JGP Slovenia, respectively. Cha was once again selected to compete at the World Junior Championships after placing fourth at the 2019 South Korean Figure Skating Championships. He ultimately finished in twentieth at the Junior Worlds.

2019-2020 season
Cha started his season by finishing fifth at 2019 JGP Russia and eleventh at 2019 JGP Italy. He then went on to make his senior international debut at the 2019 CS Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy, where he placed seventh. Following Cha's second consecutive fourth-place finish at the 2020 South Korean Figure Skating Championships, he was selected to represent South Korea at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. Cha managed to finish fifth at that event after placing fifth both in both short and free program segments of the competition.

2020-2021 season
Cha only competed at the 2021 South Korean Figure Skating Championships during this season, where he won the bronze medal.

He switched coaches from Hong Ye-Seul to Choi Hyung-kyung following the season.

2021-2022 season
Cha started season by respectively finishing seventh and fourth at 2021 JGP Slovakia and 2021 JGP Slovenia. After finishing fourth at the 2022 South Korean Figure Skating Championships, Cha concluded his season by finishing nineteenth at the 2022 World Junior Championships.

2022-2023 season
Cha began the season with a silver medal at 2022 JGP France. He then went on to compete on the senior level at 2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, where he placed tenth. At the 2022 JGP Poland I, Cha's second Junior Grand Prix assignment, he finished fourth. One month later, Cha competed at the 2022 CS Ice Challenge, where he placed tenth.

Cha finished sixth at the 2023 Korean Championships.

2023–2024 season
Cha started the season by winning the silver medal at the 2023 Asian Open Trophy, and then came seventh at the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy.

Competitive highlights
CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Senior level
Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.