TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 2024 International Skating Union (ISU) World Junior Figure Skating Championships will take place at Taipei Arena from Wednesday (Feb. 28) to Sunday (March 3).
In addition to local skaters, over 600 international skaters, coaches, and delegates from 50 countries will participate. Both men’s and women’s competitions will see categories from singles and doubles figure skating (short program, long program) to ice dance (rhythm dance, free dance).
The tournament was established in 1976 in Megève, France, and it is considered one of the four major youth figure skating championships. Taipei previously hosted the tournament in 2017.
Taipei Arena to host international youth figure skating championships. (CNA photo)
Taiwan’s best hope of a medal is teenager Li Yu-Hsiang (李宇翔), who has been training since the age of eight. This will be his final year of competition in the youth category, per UDN.
"I hope to show everyone a perfect performance and achieve a good result in the final competition of my youth career," Li said.
Another Taiwanese figure skater drawing attention is Tsai Yu-feng (蔡玉鳳), who is a qualifier for the upcoming 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games. Tsai said she would add a "3+3" jump in her women's short program.
"Although competing in Taiwan comes with a little more pressure, I hope that it can become motivation for me. I hope to perfectly present myself in this competition,” she Tsai.
Tsai started figure skating at age seven and received professional training beginning in the third grade. She was introduced to figure skating by her sister.
"I thought figure skating was fun at the beginning. Even though some things are not fun anymore, what inspires me now is the applause that I get from the audience. This is my last youth competition, so I hope that it ends well,” Tsai said.