Shin Ji-a

Shin began learning to skate in 2015. She won the national junior gold medal at the 2021 South Korean Championships.[1]

Making her international debut on the Junior Grand Prix at the 2021 JGP Slovenia in Ljubljana, Shin finished in sixth place.[1] The following week she competed in her second event on the circuit, the 2021 JGP Poland in Gdańsk. She was second after the short program, and won the bronze medal with a third-place free skate, 0.03 points behind silver medalist Elizaveta Kulikova.[2] In her first senior event, Shin was fourth at the 2022 South Korean Championships.[1]

Shin was assigned to compete at the 2022 World Junior Championships, but events would soon complicate the situation. Shortly after the conclusion of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Russia invaded Ukraine. As a result, the International Skating Union banned all Russian athletes from competing at ISU championships.[3] As Russian women had dominated international figure skating in recent years, this had a significant impact on the field.[4] Due to both the invasion and the Omicron variant, the World Junior Championships could not be held as scheduled in Sofia in early March, and were rescheduled for mid-April in Tallinn.[5] Shin finished second in the short program, 3.12 points behind segment leader Isabeau Levito of the United States.[6] She went on to win the free skate, taking a gold small medal for that segment, but remained in second overall behind Levito by 0.54 points.[7] She was only the second South Korean to win a World Junior medal, after Kim Yu-na.[8]