The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are less than three days away. Every Tuesday and Saturday, The Korea Times has pointed the spotlight at Korea’s Winter Olympians.
Today, in our ninth and final part, The Korea Times breaks down Korean figure skating star Kim Yu-na’s chances at gold and the rivals who stand in her way.
By Matt Flemming, Yoon Chul
Staff Reporters
As the athletes pour into Vancouver this week, all, regardless of their world ranking or past results, will carry with them the weight of expectations - weight heaped onto them not only by themselves but by their fans watching back home.
Over the past several weeks, The Korea Times has spoken to several Korean Olympians, and almost all have talked about the burden of expectations and the pressure not to disappoint the fans.
For most winter sports athletes, the Olympics will be the only moment where their country will be watching and cheering, while for others, like Korea's Kim Yu-na, the pressure has been mounting for months, if not years.
While the short track speed skaters are just as good bets to produce gold medals in Vancouver, Kim is, without question, the main event.
She's a star not only in the sports world but perhaps the country's most famous celebrity. Korean eyes will be on her when she hits the ice on Feb. 23.
She's dealing with the same pressure that all other overwhelming favorites feel - all of those with the weight of a nation on their backs, for whom silver would be a severe and utter disappointment.
For example, the pressure on the Canadian men's hockey team to win gold on home soil is nothing short of monumental. And despite expectations that Canada could win more medals than any country this month, the only one that truly matters to most Canadians is the gold in men's hockey - and the entire country will be watching.
The biggest difference between Yu-na and the Canadian men's hockey team is that while Sweden and Russia could potentially beat the Canadians on their best day, if Yu-na skates her best, no one will touch her. Regardless of the conspiracy theories that exist about the International Skating Union wanting a winner from Japan, Kim has for several months been in a position where she is competing against herself more than she is against rivals Ando Miki and Mao Asada.
If past results are any indication, if she skates her best, no judge will be able to deny her first-place marks.
"Personally, I used to not think about the pressure too much, but this season, especially this Olympic season, I feel so much pressure because many people are anticipating and expecting a high score," she said after a lackluster performance at Skate America in November - a competition which she won despite several mistakes.
Kim hasn't competed since December at the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo, where she skated well enough to win but where she looked human for the second straight event. After the Trophee Bompard in Paris, the first Grand Prix competition of the season, the talk was about how much higher Kim could push her world record scores.
Now, she appears beatable, something which coach Brian Orser believes is a good thing.
"Her first Grand Prix was great and she's had a good short and a good long (program) since then, but she's also been beaten in the short and the long, as well, which I think is good," Orser told AFP.
"I think it would be tough for her to go to the Olympics completely unbeatable. That's what everybody was saying: She's unbeatable. But, she's not. She is beatable.
"This way she trains accordingly and she'll be competitive. That's the spirit you have to have,"
By the time she clasps her hands together in a pistol at the end of her James Bond-themed short program, the fans will know whether she can stand the heat. And by the time she completes her free skating on Feb. 25, she will know if she has given Korea its finest moment ever at the Winter Olympic Games.
mattflemming@koreatimes.co.kr
Asada Challenges Kim for Gold in Vancouver
One of the things that makes sport interesting is competition. If one athlete dominates a sport for too long, joy quickly becomes replaced by boredom for fans.
In ladies figure skating - one of the Winter Olympics' most popular events - a small number of top skaters have formed a rivalry that has dominated the sport.
Entering the Vancouver Olympics, Kim Yu-na is the overwhelming favorite to win gold. Two Japanese skaters, Mao Asada and Miki Ando, will put the pressure on Kim to be perfect and will likely be the ones to ascend to the top of the podium should Kim stumble.
Asada, especially, has emerged in the past couple years as Kim's biggest competition. She's the only woman in the competition who currently performs the triple axel. If she is able to nail the jump in Vancouver, it will give her a big advantage.
The 2008 Grand Prix Final champion has not had a great year and the problem has been her short program, while her free skating has not been as bad.
In the short program, all skaters are required to attempt three different types of jumps: a triple jump, a triple combination and a double axel.
Asada will be taking a risk if she attempts her triple axel by itself, rather than as part of a combination. If she fails, her triple axel will be downgraded to a double and she will lose points for her triple jump. If she uses the triple axel in a combination, a very difficult move, she risks falling.
During her struggles this year, Asada has often completed just two of her three jumps in the short program. While she has struggled with the triple axel, she also had difficulty with a triple lutz, often starting from the wrong edge.
Despite her difficulties, the 19-year-old has great skills. Her strong footwork gives her great steps, hops and edge changes, and her expression and movements make her performance flow together rhythmically. Asada is also more flexible than Kim, giving her the advantage in performing elements like spins.
While Kim may stay in the air longer on her jumps, Asada ability to spin faster in the air and the height she gets on her jumps makes the triple axel possible.
Asada only completed the triple axel once on two attempts at the Four Continents Championships last month, but her victory there after a difficult season gives her some confidence heading to Vancouver.
Miki Ando
Miki Ando of Japan, the World Championship champion in 2007, is a skater on the rise. Her coach, Nikolai Morozov, recently said that he believes Miki can beat Kim. Ando is not quite as good as Kim and Asada on her jumps, but in speed and footwork, she's competitive. She has also shown that the layback spin is one of her weaknesses.
While Ando has completed a quadruple jump in competition before, she is not expected to attempt one in Vancouver.
Joannie Rochette
The Canadian, skating in front of her home fans in Vancvouer, is a darkhorse candidate to win or at least medal if the top skaters stumble. Rochette won a silver medal at the 2009 World Championships, which were held at GM Place, the same venue where the Olympic competition will take place. However, Rochette is not regarded to be in the same class as the three Asians.
She will need to be strong on her steps and spins if she hopes to medal in front of her Canadian fans.
yc@koreatimes.co.kr
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