Shin Ji-a

Shin Ji-a (born 19 March 2008) is a South Korean figure skater. She is the 2024 Youth Olympic silver medalist, the 2024 Youth Olympic champion in the team event, a three-time World Junior silver medalist (2022, 2023, 2024), a two-time Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist (2022–23, 2023–24), and a five-time ISU Junior Grand Prix medalist (including gold at the 2022 JGP Latvia, the 2023 JGP Austria, and the 2023 JGP Hungary).

Domestically, Shin is a two-time South Korean champion (2023, 2024) and the 2021 South Korean Junior champion.

Personal life
Shin was born on March 19, 2008, in Busan, South Korea.

As a hobby, she enjoys baking.

Early years
Shin began learning to skate in 2015 at the age of seven, having been inspired from watching videos of Kim Yu-na skating on YouTube. The following year, she moved from Busan to Daegu to receive professional training before relocating to Seoul after entering the fifth grade.

She won the national junior gold medal at the 2021 South Korean Championships.

2021–22 season: Junior World silver
Making her international debut on the Junior Grand Prix at the 2021 JGP Slovenia in Ljubljana, Shin finished in sixth place. The following week, she competed in her second event on the circuit, the 2021 JGP Poland in Gdańsk. She ranked second in the short program and third in the long due to a fall on the opening triple lutz. Shin won the bronze medal with only a 0.03 point gap from silver medalist Elizaveta Kulikova. In her first senior event, Shin was fourth at the 2022 South Korean Championships.

Shin was assigned to compete at the 2022 World Junior Championships, but events would soon complicate the situation. Shortly after the conclusion of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Russia invaded Ukraine. As a result, the International Skating Union banned all Russian athletes from competing at ISU championships. As Russian women had dominated international figure skating in recent years, this had a significant impact on the field. Due to both the invasion and the Omicron variant, the World Junior Championships could not be held as scheduled in Sofia in early March and were rescheduled for mid-April in Tallinn. Shin finished second in the short program, 3.12 points behind segment leader Isabeau Levito of the United States. She went on to win the free skate, taking a gold small medal for that segment but remained in second overall behind Levito by 0.54 points. She was only the second South Korean to win a World Junior medal, the first one being Yuna Kim.

2022–23 season: JGP Final and Junior World silver, first national title
Shin began the season on the Junior Grand Prix, winning the gold medal at the 2022 JGP Latvia in Riga. This included a new personal best in the short program, clearing 70 points in that segment for the first time. At her second event, the second of two Polish Junior Grand Prixes held in Gdańsk, she won the silver medal behind Japanese skater Ami Nakai. With a total of 28 points, Shin qualified to the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final.

After winning the national ranking competition in Uijeongbu in early December, Shin traveled to Turin the following week for the Junior Grand Prix Final. She skated a clean short program, placing second just 0.55 points behind the leader, Japan's Mao Shimada. Referring to performing again so soon after the ranking competition, Shin said she was "really tired, but it's OK." She was second in the free skate and also second overall, saying she was "satisfied with the result, the clean program, and the silver medal." She and bronze medalist Kim Chae-yeon were the first Korean women to medal since Kim Yu-na in 2005. She reflected on Kim as her inspiration, noting "I want to follow her path.".

Shin placed second in the short program at the 2023 South Korean Championships, behind Kim Ye-lim, after stepping out of her jump combination. She won the free skate despite colliding with the boards attempting the same jump combination, and overtook Kim to take the gold medal.

Due to her ineligibility for senior competition, Shin was assigned to finish her season at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Calgary. Entering as the defending silver medalist, she finished second in the short program with a new personal best 71.19, 0.59 points behind segment leader Shimada. She cleanly landed most of her jumps in the free skate, only to fall at the end of her choreographic sequence and take a one-point deduction. She finished narrowly second in the segment, just ahead of Nakai, and won her second consecutive Junior World silver medal. Calling this "a great highlight" after having felt sick earlier in the week, she also stated that she planned to work with veteran choreographer David Wilson on programs for the following season.

2023–24 season: Youth Olympic silver, second national title
In July 2023, Shin announced that she had left Seoul and moved to Chiba, Japan, to train at the MF Figure Skating Academy under Kensuke Nakaniwa and alongside the 2023 World Junior bronze medalist, Ami Nakai. She subsequently had to return to train in Korea, citing "minor injuries and problems with high school entrance exams." Chi Hyun-jung and Kim Jin-seo became her new coaches.

Shin began by competing at the 2023 South Korean ISU Junior Grand Prix Qualifiers, where she debuted her 2023-2024 programs. Shin skated a clean short program, earning 69.32 points, ranking first in the segment, and also a clean free skate, earning 139.48 points, ranking first both in the segment and overall. Her performance earned her two assignments on the Junior Grand Prix circuit. At the 2023 JGP Austria, she finished first in both segments and won the gold medal by a 33-point margin over silver medalist Haruna Murakami of Japan. She achieved a similarly dominant result at the 2023 JGP Hungary in Budapest, placing first in both segments and finishing nearly 24 points ahead of the silver medalist, fellow Korean skater Kim Yu-seong. She erred only once in each program, in both cases an underrotation call on one jump. These results secured Shin her second consecutive Junior Grand Prix Final berth; of this, she said "I am honoured and I will do my best."

Shin then competed at the national qualifying competition for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics, to be held on home soil in Gangwon. She placed first in both segments to win the gold medal, and was named to one of Korea's two berths in the women's competition, along with Kim Yu-seong. She went on to win the senior national ranking competition for the second consecutive season.

Shin narrowly won the short program at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Beijing, despite turning out of her jump combination, after chief rival Mao Shimada made a more significant error on her triple Lutz jump. In the free skate she made only two minor errors, receiving an incorrect edge call on a triple flip and a quarter underrotation on a loop, but was unable to match Shimada, who landed both a triple Axel and a quadruple toe loop. She won her second consecutive Final silver, and said she was "really happy" with the result.

At the 2024 South Korean Championships in early January, Shin won the gold medal for the second consecutive time. With this result, Shin was selected to compete at the World Junior Championships for the third consecutive year.

At the end of January, Shin competed in the women's event at the Youth Olympics, in what was considered another matchup between herself and Shimada. She placed third in the short program after a heavy landing on the first part of her jump combination caused her to perform only a double jump as the second half. She finished second in the free skate, 0.59 points behind Shimada, after underrotating a triple flip and performing an invalid spin, and moved up to second overall as a result, securing another silver medal behind Shimada. Saying she was "too nervous today,” Shin assessed that "I was fortunate I didn't make any big mistakes until the end. I feel really happy to get a medal in front of the home crowd." Days later, Shin was part of Team Korea in the team event. She finished first in the women's segment, setting a new personal best score of 137.48, while the team went on to win the gold medal.

Shin concluded the season at the 2024 World Junior Championships, in another contest with Shimada. She won the short program with a new personal best 73.48 points, 0.88 points ahead of Shimada, earning a gold small medal. She skated a clean free skate, but finished second to Shimada, who landed a quadruple jump, and took her third consecutive World Junior silver medal. Shin said she was satisfied with her performance in the free skate, though adding she was "a little bit sad" that it was the last time she would perform her "Not About Angels" program.

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

Junior level
Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships.