Yu-na Kim 김연아 is A Champion For All Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Yu-na Kim

 

Fans might have to look back as far as Peggy Fleming in 1968 for a bigger Olympic gold-medal favorite in figure skating than Kim Yu-na of South Korea.

 

Kim, 19, crushed her competition at the 2009 world championships by more than 16 points, seeming to float above the ice, making each difficult maneuver look easy. one of her spins received no points, but she still scored 207.71 over all to become the first female figure skater to break 200 points.

 

From there, Kim went on to win her two Grand Prix assignments, setting scoring records at each. At Skate America in November, her score for the short program was so high it would have placed her in second in the men’s short program. In that program, she skated to a medley of music from James Bond films. This season, she has performed her long program to “Concerto in F” by George Gershwin.

 

She came from behind in the short program at the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo to win that title, too. With her often flawless triple-triple jump combinations and her often cleanly executed triple axels, she has recently performed on a different level than her competition. Her artistry, too, is often unmatched.

 

Kim’s fame, however, does not ride on her winning the gold medal at Vancouver. At home in South Korea, she is already a superstar called the Queen of Figure Skating, or Queen Yu-na. Her followers tend to show up days before each big competition to affix banners around the arena that celebrate her.

 

Forbes Korea listed her as South Korea’s top celebrity, based on professionalism, popularity, income and influence. The Korea Times named her the person of the year in 2008. The runners-up? President Obama, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak.

 

In South Korea, where Kim has two full-time bodyguards, her face is on billboards, in magazines and on television in every corner of the country. She is featured in ads for the car company Hyundai and also for certain brands of air conditioners, mobile phones and milk. Samsung even launched a cellphone model called Yu-na Haptic, after Kim, and that model turned out to be one of the fastest-selling models in the company’s history.

 

In the United States, her photo is often found on the covers of Korea Herald Business, The Daily Sports Seoul USA and The Korea Daily, newspapers that follow her every move.

 

A compilation of her skating music, called “Fairy on the Ice, the Classics Album,” has been one of the top-selling CDs in South Korea and in Korean neighborhoods in the United States. Kim, a music lover, also has sung in several of her television commercials and enjoys karaoke in her free time.

 

She trains in Toronto, under the two-time Olympic silver medalist Brian Orser, who said that the attention Kim has received over the last few years from the news media and fans would help her in Vancouver. “She has 1,000 eyes on her all the time, so she’s used to it and the pressure that comes with it,” he said. “She’s gotten used to being a rock star.” Her choreographer is David Wilson.

This year, though, Kim has been under more scrutiny than usual as the Olympics grow near. The attention also grows as her fiercest rival, Mao Asada of Japan, becomes seemingly less of a threat.

In 2009, Asada failed to make the Grand Prix Final for the first time in her career, as she struggles with her jumps under the Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova. But in 2008, Asada was the world champion, with Kim finishing third.

 

In 2007, Asada was runner-up at the world championship, with Kim third again. Miki Ando of Japan won.

 

Kim has showed that she is far from perfect. In competition in the run-up to the Olympics, she flubbed her triple flip several times. But more often than not, the strength of her other elements has kept her in front of her competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kim Yuna is a champion for all time

The 19-year-old Olympic gold medalist from South Korea displays a balance of athleticism and artistry that sets her apart from other figure skaters.

By Philip Hersh

February 27, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada - It was nearly midnight Thursday, the day of triumph running into the day after, and both Kim Yuna and Brian Orser already were looking at the days ahead.

The skater and her coach were in a car going from post-competition doping control to a news conference that would be aired live in South Korea, where half the country's 48 million people already had watched TV broadcasts of their national hero becoming their first Olympic figure skating champion.

During the 20-minute ride, Kim and Orser could have sat back and looked at the gold medal she won three hours earlier with a performance of record-breaking, mind-boggling quality.

Instead, as Orser sat in a front seat and Kim in the back, they leaned together to study details on the score sheet, talking about places to improve in her next competition, the March World Championships.

That discussion speaks to the particular greatness Kim displayed in the Olympics.

If, at age 19, she already has joined the sport's legends, it will owe not only to Kim's lighter-than-air grace in her movements on the ice and her huge jumps but also to Team Kim's grounding in the demands of figure skating's scoring system.

Never have athlete and artist been more perfectly balanced than they are with Kim. Never has a skater with both those qualities displayed them so flawlessly in the sport's most important competition.

"I always wanted to be Olympic champion and do clean programs," Kim said. "This was the first time I have done both programs clean, and I am very joyful it was at the Olympics."

That achievement alone sets her apart from many of the sport's greats, especially because they had to do far fewer defined elements in a four-minute program that used to embody its title: free skate.

"It's not free any more," said 1976 Olympic champion Dorothy Hamill.

It is impossible to judge Kim against the past, as 1992 Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi noted Thursday by saying, "How do you compare that to Sonja Henie?" Henie, with her three Olympic titles and 10 world titles, can be called the greatest of all time, but 8-year-olds today could handle the technical difficulty of her programs.

"Under this new way of evaluating skating and expecting so much from skaters, Yuna distanced herself from the field by the overall, endless quality of her excellence," said 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton.

That allowed Kim to rout the competition, despite a history-making performance by Japan's Mao Asada. In two programs, Asada landed three triple axels, a jump Kim does not attempt, and she still finished nearly five points behind the South Korean in the short program and more than 22 behind in the free skate.

Without the errors she made on lesser jumps, Asada still would not have challenged Kim, whose grades of execution added nearly 10 points to her advantage.

"She is a remarkable skater," Orser said of Asada, "but they need to work with the system better."

Even the new system's most vocal proponents would admit it fails to give skaters the time to be innovators, to do what Hamill calls the "Aha!" moments by holding an innovative position or a classic skating posture long enough to make them trademark moves.

Kim did two such moves in her long program, an Ina Bauer and spread eagle, but she used the positions as brief transitions into jump combinations. The impression they left is not of breathtaking artistry but of the athletic command needed to handle the extra difficulty the moves add to the ensuing jumps.

"I think she will be remembered as a great artist, but it is a different kind of artistry," Hamill said.

Should Kim not continue beyond this season, one could argue whether an Olympic gold and perhaps two world titles are enough to give her mythic dimensions. Orser admits longevity "would be nice" and adds, "I wouldn't be surprised if she comes back."

Hamill already thinks Kim belongs in the sport's pantheon.

"She has jaw-dropping magnificence," Hamill said. "The height of her jumps, the power, the fluid beauty of her skating are like magic, and there is also a modernness about her."

So she is a champion for her times.

And one for all time, as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian Ernest Orser OC (born December 18, 1961) is a Canadian retired competitive and professional figure skater. He is the 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medalist, 1987 World champion and the 1981-1988 Canadian national champion.

He is one of the most accomplished skaters in Canada's history, with eight national titles, two Olympic medals, and a world title to his credit. He is the skating director at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club. He coached Kim Yu-Na to her Olympic gold medal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brian Orser & Yuna Kim Montage - I'll Be Holding on - The best free videos are right here

 Figure Skate Coach Brian Orser and Figure Skate Champion Yuna Kim Montage
I will be holding on by Greg Allman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.yunakim.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Orser

http://2010games.nytimes.com/athletes/yu-na-kim-kor.html 

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/27/sports/la-sp-olympics-figures27-2010feb27