SEOUL – Chaeyeon Kim used the home crowd advantage to earn the women’s gold medal at the Four Continents Championships on Sunday. The18-year-old Kim improved on her silver from last year with 222.38 points. Americans Bradie Tennell, Sarah Everhardt and Alysa Liu occupied the next three positions.
Skating to “Whispers from the Heart,” Kim landed a triple Lutz-triple toeloop, followed by a triple Lutz-double Axel, and soon the Korean flags were being waved all around Mokdong Ice Arena. She joined Yuna Kim in 2009 and Haein Lee in 2023 as Korean women to win Four Continents, and she is the first woman since Mao Asada won at Osaka in 2013 to win on home ice.
“With my home crowd, I was really eager to show my best performance,” Kim said. “I was able to do that, achieve my personal best and win this gold medal. I try to focus on the next jump, but sometimes some worries come up and I fail to do that. Recently, I learned to trust myself between the elements, so I try to have that confidence in the next elements.”
Kim also won the gold medal at the Asian Games only one week earlier and now takes her skills to Boston for the World Championships, where she won the bronze in 2024.
“I know I will be nervous at the World Championships,” Kim added, “but I will try to apply the learning from these past two competitions and focus on my good performance.”
For Bradie Tennell, the competition proved to be a full-circle point. Not only was she ninth at the PyeongChang Olympics, she won the bronze medal at Four Continents at Seoul in 2020, before a slew of injuries derailed her career. She skated a clean “Turandot” program on Sunday to earn 204.38 points.
“This season has been really rough,” the 27-year-old Tennell said. “Each competition I have done either was a good short or a good long, so it was wonderful to put them together the way I was able to before I was injured. I was just enjoying being here at Four Continents in this arena and skating again after so much. Since I was here in 2020, I feel like a new person, there is so much that has happened in my life and my career, so it was really nice to add a new experience to the wonderful memories I have with this place.”
Despite losing points on her second and third jumps, Everhardt rebounded to win bronze with 200.03 points. It is the sixth time the U.S. has sent two women to the podium at Four 
Continents and first time since Ashley Wagner and Caroline Zhang did it in 2012.
“Ever since I was a kid,” Everhardt said, “my mom would tell me if I made mistakes to just move on and forget about it and shift my focus to the next element. That’s how I always approach programs. I told (coach) Roman (Skorniakov) when I get back, we are going to do triple Axels and quad toes, so I am excited to start new things.”
Liu opened with a triple flip, then lost points on a triple Lutz-triple toe to finish in fourth. Next, the 19-year-old will participate in the World Championships, along with Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito from Team USA.
“I felt like I could give the most today,” Liu said. “This one was so much more enjoyable. It’s been so hard this season. This was hard to get through too, but it felt lighter, and I could move through it with enjoyment.”
Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi fell on a triple Lutz, but she then redeemed herself on a triple loop-double Axel-double toe combination. The current Skate America champion finished in fifth place.
“After the fall, I was contemplating what to do with the combination,” Higuchi said. “I wasn’t practicing too well, but despite that, I was able to do jumps. I was able to stay calm despite the fall.”
Defending champion Mone Chiba of Japan fell twice – on a triple Salchow and triple flip – to place her in sixth. She was in the silver medal position after the short program. Chiba and Higuchi will represent Japan at Worlds, along with three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto.
Sofia Samodelkina of Kazakhstan, Koreans Haein Lee and Ahsun Yun, and Sara-Maude Dupuis of Canada rounded out the top 10.
