'Triple Axel' figure skater Lee Hae-in wins bronze medal at first Senior Grand Prix of the season

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Young-ho = Figure skating women's single Lee Hae-in (Korea University) won a bronze medal at the International Skating Union (ISU) Senior Grand Prix, where she competed for the first time this season.

Lee Hae-in received 143.30 points, including 76.77 technical scores (TES) and 66.53 artistic scores (PCS), in the free skating of the 'Cup of China' 3rd competition of the 2026-2027 ISU Figure Senior Grand Prix held at the Shenzhen Universiade Center in Shenzhen, China on the 7th.

Lee Hae-in, who received 67.49 points in the short program the previous day, recorded a total score of 210.79 points combined with the free skating score, taking third place after Chiba Monet (Japan, 224.48 points) and Russia's Alexandra Ignatova (221.27 points), who competed as a neutral skater.

This is the first time Lee Hae-in has stood on the podium in the Senior Grand Prix Series.

Lee Hae-in, who won two gold medals and one bronze medal on the Junior Grand Prix stage, rose to the senior stage and then stood on the podium at the Four Continents Championships (silver medal in 2022, gold medal in 2023) and the World Championships (silver medal in 2023), but failed to hunt for a medal at the Senior Grand Prix stage and won her first medal this time with a bronze medal.

Lee Hae-in quenched his ‘medal thirst’ with a difficult triple axel (three aerial turns and a half).

Lee Hae-in, who had been judged to have a quarter landing (jump rotation less than 90 degrees) on the triple axel in the short program the previous day, handled it perfectly in the free skating, adding 8 base points and 1.60 point execution (GOE).

In Lee Hae-in's next triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination jump (base score of 10.10 points), it was unfortunate that the second jump was judged to be a quarter landing, deducting 0.84 points from his GOE.

Lee Hae-in, who neatly handled the third jumping task, triple salchow (base point 4.30 points, GOE 0.92 points), finished the first half of her performance with a flying camel spin (level 4) and change foot combination spin (level 3).

Lee Hae-in earned a GOE of 0.38 points in the triple flip-double axel-double axel sequence jump (base point 13.09 points) attempted in the extra point section, and also obtained GOEs of 0.93 and 0.98 points in the subsequent triple lutz (base point 6.49 points) and triple flip (base point 5.83 points), respectively.

Lee Hae-in, who completed the step sequence at level 4, finished her performance with a coreo sequence and a coreo spin.