No regrets for figure skater despite near miss

MILAN — Following the end of his free skate Friday night, marred by an early mistake with a jump, Cha Jun-hwan remained on the ice for a few extra moments, his legs stretched out and his hands propping him up. The Korean figure skater appeared to be soaking up the cheers from the crowd at Milano Ice Skating Arena at the conclusion of his Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Cha deserved all the adulation that came his way, as he finished in fourth place overall with 273.92 points. He received 181.20 points in the free skate, the fifth-highest mark among the 24 skaters, despite his failure to land a quadruple toe loop cleanly. Cha ended up only 0.98 point back of the bronze medalist from Japan, Shun Sato. Cha later explained he was simply too spent, emotionally and physically, at the end of his free skate. In his own words, "My battery just died." "I poured everything onto the ice," he said. "After falling down early, I did everything in my power to salvage the rest of my program. I think I executed all the other elements really well. Even after the mistake, I knew I was supposed to do my ab