Skating to the romantic melody of Perfect Symphony, China's fan-favorite figure skater Jin Boyang capped off his Milano-Cortina 2026 program anything but the perfect way, yet still relishing every step on his third Olympic journey.

The 28-year-old had prepared a technically demanding free-skate program choreographed to the classical crossover by British pop singer Ed Sheeran and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, but wasn't able to put it all together as neatly as needed, after he stumbled twice attempting a quad and a triple jump, respectively, which cost him dearly on his technical element score.

He managed to improve the quality of his routine later on, connecting a triple axel with a triple lutz plus a triple toeloop to go with a triple flip, among other moves, to score 142.53 points for his free skate, over 20 points behind his season-best achieved at the Four Continents Championships last month.

The world championships bronze medalist in 2016 and 2017 eventually finished in 17th with a total of 229.08 points, combined with his 86.55-point short program, bidding an emotional farewell to the Olympic stage.

"For me, this was already a perfect ending at these Olympic Games," said Jin, who narrowly missed out on a medal at his Olympic debut in 2018 after finishing fourth in South Korea to create a Chinese men's best mark at the Games.

"I am really happy with the form I delivered tonight after I had to overcome a little bit of a wardrobe malfunction," Jin said, referring to a broken shoelace that happened during his pre-skate warm-up.

"I tied the two broken pieces back together, got on the ice and had to skate on without knowing how tight, or how loose, the shoe feels upon each of my landings.

"That caused probably the second stumble, yet I pulled it through anyways to perform the rest of the routine even better than I'd expected, skating with the shoelace problem.

"So I feel really proud of myself today and I considered this imperfect performance as a perfect ending."

Since his first senior international season in 2015–16, Jin has been China's lone men's skater at the world elite level, taking those bronze medals at the Boston 2016 and Helsinki 2017 world championships, and earning three medals at the Four Continents meet, including 2018 gold in Chinese Taipei.

To make it to the Olympics for a third straight time, Jin has overcome huge challenges physically and mentally, improving his fitness, strength and staying disciplined in life, to earn his qualification quota for the Milano-Cortina Games.

Leaving the Milano Ice Skating Arena knowing he did everything to stay among the world's best, Jin said the long road now feels worth every step.

"I felt blessed (at the moment the music stopped) to be able to compete at the Olympics three times as a Chinese skater," he said.

"As hard as it was in the lead-up to the Olympics, I have relished the whole journey and enjoyed it everyday."

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn