⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cha Jun-hwan competes at the World Figure Skating Championships at TD Garden in Boston on March 29. [EPA/YONHAP] 

Cha Jun-hwan finished in seventh place with a total score of 265.74 in the men’s contest at the World Figure Skating Championships, securing Korea one 2026 Olympics ticket in men’s figure skating and one extra entry to September's Olympic qualifying competition despite failing to replicate his 2023 podium finish. 

Cha, who scored 86.41 points in the short program on Thursday, added 179.33 points in the free skate on Saturday for a seventh place finish. 

Ilia Malinin of the United States won the gold medal in the men’s contest, with Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan coming in second and Yuma Kagiama of Japan capturing bronze. 

A podium finish at this year’s world championships would have marked Cha’s second medal at the tournament after his silver in the 2023 edition. 

The silver drove Cha's rise to prominence, making him the first Korean man to medal in figure skating at the tournament. He went to more podium finishes on the international stage, including both a silver at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championship and a gold at the Asian Winter Games earlier this year, the latter of which made him the first Korean male figure skater to medal at the Asiad and exempted him from 18 months of military service. 

Cha has won medals at every major competition but the winter Olympics. He represented Korea at the 2018 and 2022 Games but failed to stand on the podium either year. 

Thanks to Cha's placement, the Korea Skating Union can now send one male figure skater to the 2026 Winter Olympics. It can send one additional competitor to the International Skating Union's September qualifying competition in Beijing, where he can vie to earn Korea a second slot. Cha, however, having qualified for the free skate at the world championships, is not eligible to compete there. 

Korea also has two spots in the women's competition at the upcoming Olympics, which Lee Hae-in and Kim Chae-yeon earned with their ninth- and 10th-place finishes, respectively, at this year's world championships.