Figure skater Jin expected to make breakthrough for China at Winter Olympics

China's 19-year-old figure skater Jin Boyang, who has been famous for his most difficult jumps, is expected to make a breakthrough for his country at the Winter Olympic Games in 2018 and 2022.

Jin, the talented budding star, impressed the world again at the Cup of China 2016 with his expressive and delightful dance movement here on Saturday.

Dancing to La Strada by Nino Rita, Jin, bronze medallist of the world championships, completed three of his four quadruple jumps in free skating and scored 182.37 points. He collected 278.54 points in total to rank second, only 1.18 points less than Canadian star Patrick Chan, who won in 279.72 points.

"I performed well today, but I made a little mistake in my quad toeloop," said Jin, who pouched the air after his dance. "I added a combination after the mistake, but still I think there will be some deduction."

Jin had skated to a strong lead in the short program on Friday with a season best 96.17 points. Dancing to Spiderman, Jin showed his improvement in expression, as the teenager used to be only strong in techniques. But Chan was the best one in free skating after his third-finish in short program. Chan scored a season best 196.31 despite a fall in his quad salchow.

"There is a little regret, but I am satisfied. I made big progress this season and I performed my normal level, much better than I did in Skate America," said Jin, who began the season in Skate America last month but only finished fifth.

Jin only made his senior international debut one year ago at the Cup of China 2015, and stunned the world with his quadruple lutz. He took the second place in Beijing last year.

"As I started my senior career not long, I am not mature enough," he said. "I hope I will be on my top at the Winter Olympic Games, and I also expect I can make a breakthrough for China's men's skate at the 2018 and 2022 Games.

Jin started figure skating at the age of seven, and showed some talent in dance movements.

"I didn't get my jumps from the beginning. Actually I progressed quite slowly, but finally started to do well in jumps from three or four years ago," he said in an interview.

He has been the first-ever skater to have done a quad lutz at world championships, and the first skater ever to complete six quads in any ISU competition.

"I will try to improve my stability in quadruple jumps," he said. "I added more sequences in my two dances this season, but it has some impacts on my rhythm and stamina. You cannot make any mistake while doing your quads."

Patrick Chan, three-time world champion, spoke highly of Jin.

"He is very talented. He can at least do four kinds of quads, and he is so young. He is the future of figure skating after our generation," said the winner.

The Cup of China is the fifth of six events in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series 2016/17. Skaters compete for points to qualify for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final and a prize money of 180,000 US dollars per individual event of the Grand Prix. Endit