You Young

You Young (Hangul: 유영; born May 27, 2004) is a South Korean figure skater. She is the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics champion in the ladies’ single, 2019 Philadelphia Summer International champion, and a four-time South Korean national champion (2016, 2018, 2019, 2020). She became the youngest ever national champion of South Korea at age 11, surpassing the previous record set by Yuna Kim who won at age 12 in 2003.She is also the first Korean lady to successfully land a triple axel in international competition, and the first Korean lady to achieve the gold medal in the Ladies’ Single held at the Winter Youth Olympics.

On the Junior level, You won bronze medal at the 2018 JGP Slovakia and finished within the top ten at the World Junior Championships for two consecutive years (2018, 2019).

You is the eleventh woman to successfully land a triple axel jump in international competition, and the third woman internationally to successfully land four triple jumps in a short program - the maximum number allowed - after Japan's Rika Kihira and Russia's Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. She currently holds the fourth highest technical element score for the short program in the ladies’ field, only after Japan’s Rika Kihira and Russia’s Alena Kostornaia and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. You remains as the first and only female skater to have had landed the triple axel in the Youth Olympics, accomplishing this feat in the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, alongside her achievement of ending Russia’s consecutive streak of attaining the gold medal in the Ladies figure skating field held at the Youth Olympics.

You Young is the third child and only daughter of her father, You Il-jin, who runs a business in Indonesia, and mother, Lee Sook-hee. She moved to Indonesia at the age of two because of her father's business, and spent her youth in Singapore.

Early career

You Young began skating after watching Yuna Kim's victory at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Though maintaining South Korean nationality, she was raised in Singapore and trained under various coaches and competed in the Singapore National Figure Skating Championships from 2011 to 2013.

One of her coaches was Singapore-based Zhang Wei, a former Chinese national ice dancer who won gold with partner Wang Rui at the 1999 Asian Winter Games, who she trained with for a six-month period in 2012. Zhang said her talent was evident even then and told TODAY: "She's not the most talented athlete I've coached. But her jumps, explosive energy, flexibility and coordination were very good then, and it is very rare that you get all these qualities in one athlete, particularly at that age." He is confident that You has what it takes to become a future world and Olympic champion. On his advice, You returned to South Korea with her mother in March 2013 to further her development as the training environment is better.

2015–2016 season: National title

In January 2016, You Young won the gold medal at the 2016 South Korean Figure Skating Championships, becoming the youngest ever national champion of South Korea at age 11, surpassing the previous record set by Yuna Kim who won at age 12 in 2003.

In March, You won the gold medal at novice level of the Cup of Tyrol.

2016–2017 season

In November 2016, You won the silver medal at novice level of the Tallinn Trophy behind Alena Kanysheva of Russia.

In January 2017, she finished fifth at the 2017 South Korean Figure Skating Championships mainly because of a fall in the short program.

2017–2018 season: Junior international debut

You debuted on the Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series in September 2018, placing fourth at JGP Croatia in Zagreb. In October, she placed fifth at JGP Italy in Egna.

In January 2018, she won the gold medal at the 2018 South Korean Figure Skating Championships, earning her second national title.

In March, You finished ninth at the 2018 World Junior Championships.

2018–2019 season: Third national title

In August 2018, You began competing on the JGP series, winning the bronze medal at JGP Slovakia in Bratislava, behind Russians Anna Shcherbakova and Anna Tarusina.It was her first and only JGP medal. She then placed fourth at JGP Canada in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

After earning her third national title, You was assigned to the 2019 World Junior Championships. In February 2019, she won gold at the 2019 Bavarian Open and the 2019 Winter Children of Asia International Sports Games. After a poor short program at Junior Worlds that left her in eleventh place, You rose to sixth place overall with a stronger free skate. She commented "I’ve no regrets, I did my best."

2019–2020 season: Senior international debut

You opened her season at the 2019 Philadelphia Summer International, where she won the gold medal. You debuted on the Challenger series, winning the bronze medal at the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy after she placed second in the short program and third in the free program.One week later You won the silver medal at another Challenger, the 2019 CS U.S. Classic.

Making her senior Grand Prix debut at the 2019 Skate Canada International, You successfully landed a ratified triple Axel in the short program.She noted that this was a moment she had been working toward for three years.In the free skate, she fell on another triple Axel attempt, and came fourth, but her total was enough for the bronze medal, after Rika Kihira and Alexandra Trusova.You's success at Skate Canada led to her being given a second Grand Prix assignment, the 2019 Cup of China, where she placed fourth. At the 2020 Youth Olympics in Lausanne, she placed first in the short program, a little less than 2 points ahead of Ksenia Sinitsyna of Russia. She won the free skate by over 12 points, and won the title overall.

You has landed the triple axel, triple axel-triple toeloop, and quadruple lutzduring practice.

You successfully landed her first triple axel in competition during the Challenger Series at the 2019 Lombardia Trophy in Italy.

You is known to land difficult jump combinations. As of the 2019-2020 season, she actively competes with the triple axel, triple lutz-triple toeloop combination, triple lutz-euler-triple salchow sequence, and the double axel-triple toeloop combination.

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

Senior level

Personal best highlighted in bold.

Junior level

Personal best highlighted in bold.