Olympic Stud of the Olympics: Kim Yu-Na!

Totally agree that she is the Olympic stud! She was amazing!

Completely agree. She is magic on ice. Her performances were unreal. Plus she just looks like a champion.

EW, you guys should do a best/worst dressed skaters of the games. Plenty of candidates are flying through my mind (esp for worst dressed)!

김연아 선수가 보여준 피겨 스케이팅의 그 열정과 기술, 그리고 예술성은 다른 어떤 선수가 따라오기엔 역부족이었다.물론 김연아 선수외에 다른 선수들 중에 잘 하는 선수도 보였다. 한국의 곽민정이나, 미국의 미라이 나가수같은 선수는 다음 올림픽이 기대되는 선수들이었다…아무튼,자랑스럽다..

i’m not sure how “shrieking koreans” helps you tell your story. moreover, i’m fairly certain you would not have written “shrieking jews” or “shrieking blacks.” generally not necssary and offensive.

Thanks for your article that has full of implications and comparisons. It seems to be the best article among writings about winter olympics 2010.

For me she is extra special because Yuna’s symbolize so much more than success. Her hard working ethics, devotion, independence, incredible self believe and good old fashioned grit over adversity. She was a complete innovator for her sport in Korea that doesn’t even have a figure skating program never mind government support, so much so she had to practice in a public rink along with the general public skate for funs crowd. Can you imagine this in the US?
Even back in the 2009 world championship press conference, she floored the Japanese and European reporters when answering the question of how many people in Korea tried for international figure skating? Thousands? Hundreds? She shyly laughed and said: 10!! In fact she funded the current girls’s figure skating program in Korea herself. She is only 19… wow!
The fact she came from a normal middle class family in Korea, where skate is a luxury sport. She was struggling so much financially in the beginning, that she ended travelling on her own as a teenager to compete internationally not able to speak a word of English. She also had to practice in a public rink with the general public which is a total distraction and dangerous since she can run over some youngsters doing the triple. Unsurprisingly she nearly give up. That was why Korea find her story such an inspiration at the peak of recession, and her simple charm and considerable singing skills made her everyone’s favourite girl next door, daughter, granddaughter, sister, best friend etc.
The girl’s only 19. She broke 3 world records in her first Olympics plus the gold. She is her own woman and produced the performance of all ages. Her presence definitely improves everyone’s game, considering there’s not one fell in women’s final which is simply incredible when compared to the Men’s.

I am one of those very few Koreans who have followed figureskating since the 1960′s. My first idol was Peggy Flemming, then it was Lynn, Hamil, Witt, Torvill & Dean, and Kwan. In my 45 years of watching figureskating Worlds and Olympics (I don’t watch Nationals or Grand Prix) I have never seen a near-perfect performance like Yuna’s 2010 Olympics perfornance, aside from Torvill & Dean’s breathtaking Bolero.

I never liked Gershwin’s Concerto for her long program. When she made a mistake or two, or when her speed dropped off a little, somehow the music and her skating just did not produce that spectacularly harmonious union that I always waited for. I even thought that Mao’s dark and foreboding Russian orchestral music was better suited for a long program.

But after watching Yuna’s best performance to date in the long program, I could finally see that Gershwin and Yuna were a match made in heaven. As more than one commentator remarked, her performance at the 2010 Olympics was “ethereal”. The music seemed to levitate her feather-light body across the ice. The music also worked well to punctuate her transitional moves and precise steps. I was in a trance from the very beginning till the end, until I heard the audience roar.

I also like Mao a lot. She’s got the heart of a lion and has all of the athletic ability to be an Olympic champion, but not when Yuna is around.

Overall, I would rank Yuna’s performance as the greatest Olympic figureskating performance, male or female, singles or pairs, and half-a-notch above Torvill & Dean’s equally mesmerizing work some twenty years ago.