Shin Ji-a is the 2024 Youth Olympic silver medalist, the 2024 Youth Olympic champion in the team event, a four-time World Junior silver medalist, a two-time Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist, and a five-time ISU Junior Grand Prix medalist.
39 Facts About Shin Ji-a
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Domestically, Shin is a two-time South Korean champion and the 2021 South Korean Junior champion.
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Shin Ji-a was born on March 19,2008, in Busan, South Korea.
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Shin Ji-a began learning to skate in 2015 at the age of seven, having been inspired from watching videos of Kim Yu-na skating on YouTube.
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Shin Ji-a won the national junior gold medal at the 2021 South Korean Championships.
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Shin Ji-a ranked second in the short program and third in the long due to a fall on the opening triple lutz.
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Shin Ji-a won the bronze medal with only a 0.03 point gap from silver medalist Elizaveta Kulikova.
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Shin Ji-a was assigned to compete at the 2022 World Junior Championships, but events would soon complicate the situation.
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Shin Ji-a finished second in the short program, 3.12 points behind segment leader Isabeau Levito of the United States.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a was only the second South Korean to win a World Junior medal, the first one being Yuna Kim.
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Shin Ji-a began the season on the Junior Grand Prix, winning the gold medal at the 2022 JGP Latvia in Riga.
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Shin Ji-a skated a clean short program, placing second just 0.55 points behind the leader, Japan's Mao Shimada.
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Shin Ji-a placed second in the short program at the 2023 South Korean Championships, behind Kim Ye-lim, after stepping out of her jump combination.
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Shin Ji-a won the free skate despite colliding with the boards attempting the same jump combination, and overtook Kim to take the gold medal.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a finished narrowly second in the segment, just ahead of Nakai, and won her second consecutive Junior World silver medal.
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In July 2023, Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a skated a clean short program, earning 69.32 points, ranking first in the segment, and a clean free skate, earning 139.48 points, ranking first both in the segment and overall.
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Shin Ji-a's performance earned her two assignments on the Junior Grand Prix circuit.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a erred only once in each program, in both cases an underrotation call on one jump.
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Shin Ji-a then competed at the national qualifying competition for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics, to be held on home soil in Gangwon.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a went on to win the senior national ranking competition for the second consecutive season.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a won her second consecutive Final silver, and said she was "really happy" with the result.
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At the 2024 South Korean Championships in early January, Shin Ji-a won the gold medal for the second consecutive time.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a concluded the season at the 2024 World Junior Championships, in another contest with Shimada.
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Shin Ji-a won the short program with a new personal best 73.48 points, 0.88 points ahead of Shimada, earning a gold small medal.
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Shin Ji-a skated a clean free skate, but finished second to Shimada, who landed a quadruple jump, and took her third consecutive World Junior silver medal.
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Shin Ji-a 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.
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Shin Ji-a began the season by winning the 2024 South Korean ISU Junior Grand Prix Qualifiers and was given two Junior Grand Prix assignments as a result of her placement.
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Shin Ji-a moved up to fourth place overall, missing the podium by less than two points.
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Weeks later, Shin Ji-a delivered stronger performances at the 2024 JGP Slovenia, where she won the silver medal.
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One month later, at the 2025 South Korean Championships, Shin Ji-a finished second to Kim.