Stylish Jin jumping into global spotlight

China's Jin Boyang performs during Saturday's free skating competition at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of China in Beijing. Nicolas Asfouri / AFP

Jin Boyang is leaping toward his Olympic dream.

En route to finishing second at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of China over the weekend, the 19-year-old impressed the audience and judges with stylish performances, punctuated by high-quality quadruple jumps.

Although he failed to qualify for this season's Grand Prix final due to a fifth-place finish at Skate America last month, Jin has already set his sights on the world championships at the end of the season and the next two Winter Olympics - 2018 in Pyeongchang and 2022 in Beijing.

"I hope I can reach my peak at the Winter Olympics and make a breakthrough for China in men's singles," Jin said. "I will work harder for the breakthrough and for the Games in 2018 and 2022. I want to stand on the podium."

China's best result in men's singles at the Winter Olympics is a seventh-place finish by Yan Han at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Leading after the short program at the Cup of China, Jin was edged by three-time world champion Patrick Chan of Canada by 1.18 points after the free program.

Performing to La Strada, Jin's free skating routine was highlighted by a quadruple Lutz, quadruple Salchow and quadruple toeloop-double toeloop, as well as two triple Axels. But he under-rotated on one quad toeloop, which gave Chan the opportunity to catch up.

"I think I performed better than I did in training. The second jump in the combination was not perfect, but the other jumps were not bad," said Jin.

"Skate America didn't go so well for me, so after I came back, I worked very hard."

Jin achieved a season's best 182.37 points in free skating to finish with a total of 278.54.

In only his second senior season, Jin said he has already made big adjustments to improve.