Josephine Lee

Lee was born on 3 February 2008 in Newport Beach, California. She aspires to go to medical school.^[1] Her mother is a Taiwanese attorney. Lee currently attends California Connection Academy. ^[2]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Lee began skating at the age of four when her dad took her to a rink near his office. She has said that she fell in love with the challenge the sport gave her. She made a coaching change at age twelve and began to master all of her triple jumps.^[1] In 2019, she experienced a stress fracture in her spine due to an overuse injury.^[3]

Lee made her international debut at the 2021 Junior Grand Prix in Courchevel, France, finishing in 8th place.^[4] She went on to win the bronze medal at the 2022 U.S. Junior Championships.^[5][6] Lee later shared that after the championships, "That’s when I realised that it started to get serious and I can actually go somewhere."^[1]

Lee was assigned to two Grand Prix events, both in Poland. She finished 9th at the 2022 Solidarity Cup^[7] and subsequently placed 7th at the 2022 Baltic Cup.^[8]

In February, she made her world debut at the 2023 World Junior Championships. Lee finished 14th after the short program, placed 21st in the free program, and finished in 19th place overall.^[9]

Lee opened her season by winning the bronze medal at the 2023 Cranberry Cup.^[4] Three weeks later, she competed at the 2023 JGP in Austria, finishing in 8th place.^[10] Lee said that she was struggling with adjusting to a growth spurt.^[11]

She competed at the 2024 U.S. Championships on the senior level in January. After finishing 5th after the short program, Lee placed 1st in the free skate segment, leading her to place 2nd overall and win the silver medal.^[11] Lee said about her placement, "I cried like three times. After my free skate, my (fake) eyelashes fell off because I cried them off. I was crying so much, but I was also trying to cover my face so no one could see the eyelashes falling off...I didn’t know where I would place. Going into this event, I had no expectations. After my long program, I expected maybe, at most, fourth, so I was just really happy with how I did. I didn’t really think about my placement at the time."^[1]

Lee went on to finish 20th at the 2024 World Junior Championships, garnering new season's best scores across both program segments.^[4][12] She shared, "I didn’t expect to come here as I had a pretty rough start of the season. I went into Nationals thinking it would be my last event and just wanted to show what I can do. I want to approach this event the same way."^[13]

Lee began her final junior season by competing at the 2024 JGP Czech Skate, placing 5th overall.^[14] She went on to win the bronze medal at the 2024 Tallinn Trophy.^[4] In November, she placed 4th at the 2024 Santa Claus Cup.^[15]

She finished the season by placing 7th at the 2025 U.S. Championships.^[16][17] She said afterward, "I'm really relieved that I just got through everything coming into this competition, I had pneumonia, like a week and a half ago, so I just had, like, one week of training, so I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to get through this program. But thankfully, I got through, and I did a lot more than I expected."^[18]

Lee opened her first senior season by competing at the 2025 Cranberry Cup,^[19][20] finishing in 5th place. She subsequently finished 4th at the 2025 Denis Ten Memorial Challenge.^[21]

She was selected as one of the host picks, alongside Starr Andrews, for the 2025 Skate America.^[22] Making her senior Grand Prix debut, she placed 12th in both program segments, finishing in 12th place overall.^[23]

At the 2026 U.S. Championships, Lee was 8th after the short program. In the free skate, she fell three times and had a number of under-rotation and downgrade calls from the technical panel, and she finished 18th in that segment. She concluded the competition in 16th place overall.^[24]

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2025–2026 [25]	Objection (Tango) by Shakira choreo by. Kaitlyn Weaver, Massimo Scali	Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov choreo by. Kaitlyn Weaver, Massimo Scali
2024–2025 [25]		Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff choreo by. Kaitlyn Weaver, Massimo Scali
2023–2024 [25]	I Love Paris – J’aime Paris by Zaz and Cole Porter choreo by. Kaitlyn Weaver, Massimo Scali	Poeta en el Viento by Vicente Amigo choreo by. Kaitlyn Weaver, Massimo Scali
2022–2023 [25]	Letting Go by Saara Aalto choreo by. Kaitlyn Weaver, Massimo Scali	O Fortuna and In Trutina by Carl Orff performed by Jenny Oaks Baker & Justine Balmer choreo by. Kaitlyn Weaver, Massimo Scali
2021–2022 [25]	Dracula the Musical Please Don't Make Me Love You by Katherine Shindle	Don Quixote Red Ballerina