BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- 17-year-old Zhang Ruiyang earned a figure skating women's singles berth for China in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics after finishing fifth at the ISU Figure Skating Olympic qualifier here on Saturday.
The top five women's skaters in the qualifier won tickets for the 2026 Olympics. Adeliia Petrosian won with a total score of 209.63 points, 3.40 points ahead of the second-placed Georgia's Anastasiia Gubanova.
Loena Hendrickx of Belgium and Viktoriia Safonova finished third and fourth respectively with 204.96 points and 181.91 points.
"I gradually got to know how to deal with pressure in this major event. I focused on my own skating and also learned a lot from other elite competitors. I still need to adjust myself in jumping and mindset in a long run," said Zhang, who scored 179.76 points to seal the berth.
Three Winter Olympic slots in pairs were also decided on Saturday, with Chinese skaters Zhang Jiaxuan and Huang Yihang in the first place, followed by Armenia's Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin and Japan's Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi.
In the men's short program, Petr Gumennik was currently in the first place with a dominating 93.80 points.
The three-day Olympic qualifier will conclude on Sunday, with five men's singles and four ice dance berths for the 2026 Olympics on offer. ■
