Yu-na's 'heirs' survive to perform in free skate

Park So-yeon competes in the women’s short program competition at the Iceberg Skating Palace, Thursday (KST). / AP-Yonhap

By Kim Tong-hyung

Kim Yu-na is halfway in her quest to retire in style with an Olympic gold medal. But for her younger compatriots, Kim Hae-jin and Park So-yeon, the Sochi Games are already a success.

Heading into the Olympics, the pair of 17-year-olds set their goals at qualifying for the women’s free skate, which meant they needed to finish among the top 24 among the 30 skaters competing in the short program.

They did just that at the Iceberg Skating Palace on Thursday, with Kim Hae-jin finishing 18th with 54.37 points and Park at 23rd with 49.14 points.

While they have yet to earn their stripes as elite skaters, the big picture for Kim Hae-jin and Park is to keep getting better until the next Olympics in 2018, which will be held in Korea’s sleepy ski resort of PyeongChang.

Appearing in their first Olympics, the teenagers seemed to struggle to calm their nerves on the ice. Kim landed awkwardly in her first jump routine, a triple lutz, which prompted the judges to shave 1.80 points off her grade of execution (GOE) score.

Kim skated better as the program progressed, cleanly executing a triple flip-double toe loop combination and a double axel between spins and twists. She finished with a technical element score (TES) of 29.23 and a program component score (PCS) of 25.14.

Park was also shaky in her first jump, failing to execute a triple salchow-triple toe-triple loop combination, but avoided large mistakes during the rest of the program.

Kim Hae-jin and Park, who are close friends, emerged as prospects at a similar time. Park won a surprise silver at the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix event in September 2012.

Kim Hae-jin upstaged her the following week by winning the very next Grand Prix event, which represented the country’s first gold at the junior level since the days a younger Kim Yu-na was taking them in bunches.

At the national figure skating championships in January, Park finished second with 178.17 points, nearly 50 points behind Kim Yu-na, who scored 227.86 points in her final tune-up before the Olympics. Kim Hae-jin finished third with 159.75 points and clinched the country’s third and final Olympic ticket.

While they continue to be paired in media stories, Kim Hae-jin and Park couldn’t be more different in style. Park is the more athletic of the two, achieving better height and velocity on her jumps. Experts consider Kim Hae-jin as more advanced in her artistry, a natural performer who displays a personality on ice.