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Ice dancers fail to qualify for free dance in Winter Olympics after shaky performance

Published: 10 Feb. 2026, 08:58 Updated: 10 Feb. 2026, 16:41

Hannah Lim, front, and Quan Ye of Korea perform their rhythm dance program during the ice dance competition at the Winter Olympics at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 9. [YONHAP]

The ice dance duo of Hannah Lim and Quan Ye failed to qualify for the free dance after struggling in their rhythm dance program at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Monday.

Lim and Quan scored their career low 64.69 points in the rhythm dance to finish 22nd at Milano Ice Skating Arena. Quan lost his balance and stumbled trying to execute twizzles in the early part of the program, set to "Men in Black" (1997), "Pump Me Up" (1999) and "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" (1997) by Will Smith.

There were 23 couples in action, and the top 20 advanced to the free dance set for Wednesday.

Lim and Quan received 34.28 points in the technical element score, which considers skaters' execution of technical elements, such as twizzles, step sequence, rotations and lifts. They had 30.41 points in the program component score, which evaluates skaters' overall choreography and presentation.

Lim and Quan scored 70.55 points in the rhythm dance portion of the team event last Friday.

This is the end of their first Olympics together. Lim, born in Toronto to Korean parents, has dual citizenship and chose to represent Korea internationally. Quan, born in Iceland but raised in Canada, became a naturalized Korean citizen in December 2024.

Yonhap