This is as vague as I can get. But you won’t take time to scratch your head unless you recently spent a vacation in a Galapagos jungle.
Yuna Kim.
This understated 19 year old teenager is a center of storm, for whom sports editors and news commentators have exhausted superlative adjectives long before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Last month, Kim decimated the field at Pacific Coliseum of Toronto with a world record performance, and set a new definition of figure skating enshrined with all possible elements that makes the sport greater than anyone has ever before perceived.
“It — her performance — has taken women’s skating to another level,” said Krisiti Yamaguchi.
“There’s no weakness there. Compare her with anybody; she’s got it all. Under any system, anywhere, any time, she’d win,” said Scott Hamilton, the 1984 men’s Olympic champion.
“She’s the fastest skater I’ve ever seen,” said Michelle Kwan, five-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist.
“She has a lightness to her skating and her jumps are very high,” said Katarina Witt, the two time Olympic champion in 1984 and 1988.
She has jaw-dropping magnificence,” said Dorothy Hamill, the 1976 Olympic champion.
All greats in the past gave Kim thumbs up way high, unanimously impressed. However, nearly clueless to all buzzes she had created, Kim tentatively revealed what’d really gone through her mind on the ice shortly after the long program.
“I always wanted to be Olympic champion and do clean programs,” Kim said in her down-to-earth sparks. “This was the first time I have done both programs clean.”
Astounding as it may be, especially from the all time best skater, Kim couldn’t have been more honest. For all her technical superiority and unparalleled artistry that puts her name in figure skating’s pantheon, Kim wasn’t, perhaps never before, able to deliver a clean program.
Then how has she been so successful?
That’s another side of her greatness. Despite errors, Kim conquered one competition after another, enchanting the eyes of spectators and impressing judges who’s as strict as a schoolmaster ready to mark down any minutest hiccups. In other words her less than perfect performances were far better than others’ error free program.
Now that her popularity goes beyond her native country, it’s interesting to see the aftermath of Olympics where she earned an electrifying global fame.
Here is a short profile of Yuna Kim.
Name: Yuna Kim
Nationality: South Korea
Age: 19
Career Highlight: 2009 World Champion, 2010 Olympic Champion
Yuna Kim was born in 1990 at Bucheon in Korea. At 7 she began to skate. In 2002, Kim appeared for the first time at the international competition, where she won the title. Sine then Kim positioned herself either in the top podium or the next throughout all her junior years.
One of the most remarkable things in her career is she never missed the podium, from her first day as junior of the ISU international competitions or national competitions — that is, her worst was bronze.
During 2005-2006 season, the then-15-year-old writes a history of her own, claiming a total of five competitions, from Junior World Championship to Grand Prix Final, including her fourth national championship. She won all competitions she entered.
In senior competitions, Kim has won, up to present, all competitions except three bronzes at 2007 and 2008 World Championships and Grand Prix Canada and one silver at 2008 Grand Prix Final, which was the last time Kim stood low on the podium. She collected 11 of 13 ISU International Championship titles — including three Grand Prix Finals and the 2009 World Championships and the recent 2010 Vancouver Olympics — since Kim had won the Grand Prix at China, November in 2007.
In all her skating careers from 2002 to 2010, there was no occasion she missed the podium, whether it’s national competitions or internationals or worlds.
If she enters, she wins the podium.
This says pretty much about her genius. It’s only fitting that Kim, as of March, ranks first in the world.
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Pritha SarKar, Golden Yuna joins all time skate greats, Reuters
Philip Hersh, Kim Yuna is a champion for all time, LA Times
Jere Longman, INSIDE THE RINGS; Kim Raises Bar, Delighting Fans, NY Times
Juliet Macur, Kim Yu-na Wins Gold in Figure Skating, NY Times
Kim Yu-Na, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Yu-Na
