Kim Hyun-gyeom

Kim Hyun-gyeom (born June 27, 2006) is a South Korean figure skater. He is the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic champion in both the men's and team events, the 2023–24 Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist, a two-time ISU Junior Grand Prix medalist, the 2023 South Korean silver medalist, and the 2020 South Korean Junior bronze medalist.

Personal life
Kim was born on June 27, 2006, in Seoul, South Korea. Before he began figure skating, Kim played soccer.

Kim can speak some Japanese as a result of his mother being fluent in the language. He also speaks a bit of English.

He looks up to training mate, Cha Jun-hwan, citing him as an inspiration.

Early career
As an intermediate novice skater, Kim competed at 2018 Asian Open Trophy, where he won the gold medal. He then went on to finish fourth at the 2019 Korean Junior Championships that same year.

The following season, at 2019 Asian Open Trophy, Kim won the bronze medal as an advanced novice. Then going on to compete at the 2020 Korean Junior Championships, Kim won the bronze medal.

2020–21 season
Debuting on the senior national level, Kim placed eighth at the 2021 Korean Championships.

2021–22 season
Making his international Junior Grand Prix debut, Kim finished eighth and ninth at the JGP Poland and JGP Austria, respectively.

Following a seventh-place finish at the 2022 Korean Championships, Kim closed his season with a gold medal in the junior event of the 2022 Triglav Trophy.

2022–23 season
Kim began the 2022–23 figure skating season by making his senior international debut at 2022 Ondrej Nepela Trophy, where he placed fourth before going on to finish twelfth at 2022 Finlandia Trophy.

At the 2023 Korean Championships, Kim managed to win the silver medal behind Cha Jun-hwan after delivering two clean performances. As a result, Kim was selected to represent South Korea at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Calgary, Alberta.

At those championships, Kim placed eighth in the short program and sixth in the free skate segments of the competitions, scoring personal bests and finishing sixth overall. This placement earned two spots for South Korean men's singles skaters at the 2024 World Junior Championships.

2023–24 season
In late July, Kim competed at the 2023 South Korean ISU Junior Grand Prix Qualifiers, where he won the silver medal behind Seo Min-kyu, earning two assignments on the Junior Grand Prix circuit. At his first assignment, the 2023 JGP Austria, he won the silver medal and set a new personal best score in the free skate in the process. He was the only skater at the event to attempt quadruple jump, but it was deemed underrotated. Kim then won gold at the 2023 JGP Hungary, again improving his free skate personal best and setting a new personal best in total score as well. His results qualified him for the 2023–24 Junior Grand Prix Final. The following week he appeared on the senior level at the Nepela Memorial, finishing fourth for the second consecutive season.

Following the Junior Grand Prix, Kim won the national qualifier for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics, to be hold on home ice in Gangwon. He went on to compete at the senior national ranking competition, finishing fourth.

Kim then competed at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Beijing, where he won the short program. Second in the free skate, he dropped to second overall and won the silver medal. After falling on his quad attempt, he said he was "not that satisfied with my performance" but "happy with the result." He went on to place fourth at the 2024 South Korean Championships.

At the Youth Olympics, Kim came third in the short program of the men's event. He won the free skate, rising to first overall and claiming the gold medal, the first Olympic medal for a Korean man. He then joined Team Korea for the team event, again winning the men's segment and winning gold with the rest of the team, another first for Korea.

Kim concluded the season making his senior World Championship debut at the 2024 edition, where he came eighteenth.

Competitive highlights

 * GP – Event of the ISU Grand Prix Series
 * JGP – Event of the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series
 * CS – Event of the ISU Challenger Series