Toronto: South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na, the favourite for the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, is blazing a trail in a nation better known for its speed skating success.
If the wildly popular 19-year-old world champion skates her way to the top of the podium next month, she will be the first South Korean winter athlete to win Olympic gold outside speed skating.
Yu-na fever is running high in South Korea where her face is splashed across countless billboards and her name licenses products ranging from bread to necklaces. Forbes magazine named her the most powerful celebrity in South Korea in 2009.
At a recent practice in Toronto, where Kim has been training for three years, the five-foot-five-inch (1.65-metre), 103-pound (48-kg) figure skater said she felt the pressure entering her first Olympics with the hopes of a nation resting on her shoulders.
“I’m trying not to think about the gold medal because that gives me more pressure,” she told Reuters. “From a young age I’ve watched the Olympics and I know surprises can happen. I don’t know the outcome, but I’m ready to accept it.”
Kim became the first woman to break the 200-point barrier at a world championships when she skated to gold in Los Angeles last March with a total of 207.71.
Vancouver Rivals
Her main competitors for the gold medal in Vancouver will be Japanese skaters Mao Asada and Miki Ando, both former world champions, and Canada’s Joannie Rochette, the 2009 silver medallist.
Helping to keep Kim’s emotions in check is her coach, Canada’s Brian Orser, who like his charge was his country’s main hope for a figure skating gold medal when he competed.
Orser won silver at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, and again at the 1988 Calgary Games in the famous on-ice duel against American Brian Boitano, which was dubbed the “Battle of the Brians”.
“Heading into last season I said to her: ‘I know what you’re feeling’ and it was a statement that from any other coach, parent or fan could not ring as true,” said Orser. “And just instantly I could see there was a sense of relief.”
Orser said Kim had matured greatly since he started coaching her in mid-2006.
“It’s been cool to start with a 15-year-old girl with braces and gangly and shy and then she has developed into this incredible human being, this beautiful woman who just naturally made this transition in front of our eyes,” said Orser.
Bond Music
The transition has earned Kim the nickname of ‘Queen Yu-na’.
Her short programme is skated to a medley of music from James Bond films. Kim’s choreographer gave her the entire film series and told her to watch it.
During the final moments of her short programme, Kim employs some intricate footwork, makes her way down the ice, moves into a spin routine and ends in a Bond-like pose.
South Korea has won 17 Winter Olympic gold medals, all in speed skating. The 2006 Turin Games provided the nation’s biggest haul, with six golds, three silvers and two bronzes.
While Kim says she is trying to keep her focus on her training, she admits to getting caught up in the excitement of the chance to earn South Korea’s first Winter Olympic gold medal in a different sport.
She says she often pictures herself atop the podium in Vancouver with the South Korean flag hanging high above as the figure skating medals are handed out.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 09:55