Kim Jin-seo

Kim at the 2015 Junior Worlds
Personal information
Native name	김진서
Full name	Kim Jin-seo
Born	(1996-11-29)November 29, 1996 (age 28) Seoul,South Korea
Height	1.67 m (5 ft5+1⁄2 in)
Figure skating career
Country	South Korea
Began skating	2008
Retired	2018

Kim Jin-seo (Korean: 김진서; born November 29, 1996) is a former South Koreanfigure skater. He is the 2012 and 2014South Korean national senior champion, the2012 ISU JGP Austria bronze medalist and the2014 Ondrej Nepela Trophy silver medalist.

At the2014 World Championships, Kim became the first Korean men's singles skater to pass the 200-point total mark.^[1]

Kim was born on November 29, 1996, inSeoul,South Korea.^[2]

In August 2022, Kim announced that he was engaged to longtime girlfriend, Park Seon-kyung, and she was pregnant with their first child.^[3] They married in the summer of 2023.^[4]

Their son, Kim I-an, was born in October 2022.^[5]

Kim started skating at the age of 11 as a means of physical therapy for his health. Within a few months, his then-teacher recognized Kim's potential and suggested skating seriously to try to make the Korean national team. He began competing in 2009. In the 2010–11 season, he won the junior men's title at the2011 South Korean Championships.

In June 2011, Kim sustained an injury to his left eardrum after falling on a rainy day during an outdoor practice session. The fall resulted in 80% of his left eardrum being torn and the need for surgery to replace the lost tissues.^{[citation needed]} Despite being only partially recovered from the injury, Kim participated in the qualifying event for theISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series but was unsuccessful. A few months later, in January 2012, he competed in the senior men's event at the2012 South Korean Championships. He delivered two nearly-clean programs which brought him a national title for the first time in his career with a total of 186.44.^[6]

Kim joined2010 Olympic ladies championYuna Kim in an ice show, theAll That Skate Spring 2012, held in Seoul, South Korea on 4–6 May 2012, along with other skaters such asShen Xue /Zhao Hongbo,Patrick Chan, andStéphane Lambiel.^[7]

Kim won his country's JGP selection event, held in August, earning two spots for the Junior Grand Prix. He made his junior international debut at theJGP Austria, where he won the bronze medal after being placed tenth in the short and second in the free skate with a total of 175.87. At this event, he surpassed the minimum TES for the Worlds in his nearly-clean free-skate. At theJGP Croatia, Kim had a few mistakes in the short placing in eighth, but again rebounded in the free skate to place second in the free skate. With a total of 176.43, he placed in the fourth position. After two JGP events, he competed at theNRW Trophy to get the minimum TES for the short program. He skated a clean short program and qualified for the2013 World Championships inLondon, Ontario, Canada.^[8] In the short program, he landed a clean triple axel and triple lutz with connecting steps and stepped out of his triple toe-loop triple toe-loop combination. He placed 26th in the short and just missed qualifying for the free skate by a point and a half.

Kim started the season at a JGP event inRiga, Latvia, where he placed 6th. After the event, at the2013 Nebelhorn Trophy which was the qualifying event for the2014 Winter Olympics, Kim placed 20th in the men's event. A few weeks later, Kim placed 6th in the JGP inTallinn, Estonia, with total of 184.53. At the Korean Nationals, Kim had a clean short program and headed into the free skate as the leader. In the free skate, he also had an almost-clean programme. With the total of 209.35, he became a two-time Korean national champion, which meant he also qualified for the2014 World Championships. At the World Championships, he had his new personal best in short, free skate and total and placed in 16th place. Earning a total of 202.80 points, he became the first Korean male skater to cross the 200-point mark.

Kim was assigned to the2014 NHK Trophy.^[9] At the2014 Ondrej Nepela Trophy, Kim became the first Korean male skater to break the 70-point mark in the short program with the score of 71.44. He placed in 9th place at both his Grand Prix assignments. At the2015 World Junior Championships, he placed fourth in the short programs, 11th in the free skate, and ninth overall, thus securing two spots at the 2016 Junior Worlds.

Kim began his season at theIce Star, where he won the gold medal. He was assigned to the2015 Skate Canada and the2015 Trophée Éric Bompard in the2015–16 ISU Grand Prix season.

At the Skate Canada inLethbridge, Alberta, he placed 9th overall. At the Trophée Éric Bompard inBordeaux, France, he placed 9th in the short program before the free skate was cancelled due to theNovember 2015 Paris attacks.

At the2016 Korean Championships, Kim won the silver medal behindLee June-hyoung, and was named to the2016 Four Continents Championships team, where he finished tenth.

Kim opened the2016–17 figure skating season with a silver medal at2016 Asian Open and a sixth-place finish at2016 CS Lombardia Trophy. At the2017 Korean Championships, Kim won the silver medal beforeCha Jun-hwan, who wasn't age eligible to compete at the2017 Four Continents Championships or the2017 World Championships, thus Kim was named to both teams.

Competing at the2017 Winter University Games, Kim finished in eighth-place. At the Four Continents Championships, Kim placed seventeenth. Kim then went on to finish seventh at the2017 Asian Winter Games.

Kim finished twenty-sixth in the short program the World Championships, failing to qualify for the free skate segment of the competition.

Kim began the2017–18 figure skating season with a tenth-place finish at the2017 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy.

At the2018 Korean Championships, Kim once again placed second toCha Jun-hwan. Due to their being only one spot for Korean men's singles at the2018 Winter Olympics inPyeongchang, the spot was ultimately awarded to Cha, however, Kim was given the spot to compete at the2018 World Championships.

Kim finished thirty-third in the short program segment of the World Championships, failing to qualify for the free program segment.

On the advice of his doctor, he retired from competitive figure skating following the season due to a back injury.^[1]

Following his retirement, Kim began working as an assistant coach to his former coach,Chi Hyun-jung.^[1]

His current and former students include:

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

Personal bests are highlighted inbold.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKim Jin-seo.

• Kim Jin-Seo at theInternational Skating Union

• South Korean male single skaters
• 1996 births
• Living people
• Figure skaters from Seoul
• Figure skaters at the 2017 Asian Winter Games
• Competitors at the 2017 Winter Universiade
• 21st-century South Korean sportsmen

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