Underdog skater achieves stunning victory

Choi Da-bin / Yonhap

Choi Da-bin wins Korea’s first Asian Games gold

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Choi Da-bin, 16, was an underdog skater among a group of post-Kim Yuna generation skaters who were raised while watching the namesake figure skating legend who won a gold medal in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Before the Sapporo Asian Winter Games, Choi was rarely seen as an athlete to add one more medal in figure skating to Korea’s tally, partly because she had never been atop in recent national championships.

She had consistent performance during the National Figure Skating Championships in January but was behind her rival Kim Na-hyun who scored 181.78 points. Choi failed to get the ticket to compete in the World Figure Skating Championships slated for March 29 through April 2 in Helsinki, Finland.

Choi was also outshone by Park So-youn who made solid performances last year in international championships. Park, 19, placed fourth during the International Figure Skating Union (ISU)’s Four Continents Championships and then ranked fifth during the ISU Grand Prix Trophy in France last year with 185.19 points, raising hopes for a medal during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Frustration, however, turned into hope this month as Choi was given the opportunities to compete in international championships. Her injured rivals— Kim and Park— gave up their opportunities to hunt for medals in the Sapporo Asian Games as well as in the forthcoming World Championships.

The teenage skater made the most of her lucky break. During the Asian Games, she pulled together an accomplishment that no other Korean skaters ever achieved before — Choi became the first Korean skater to win the Asian Games gold medal.

Her winning the medal was more than luck.

Choi switched background music for her short program last month, following the advice from her Russian coach who said the Mambo music Choi used for the program didn’t fit well for the skater.

After consulting with her coach, she had new music for her short program. “It’s Over, Isn’t It” in the first part which was followed by “Some One in the Crowd.” This is the new music she has since skated to in the short program. Switching music in the middle of the season, particularly before the Asian Games, was a high-risk, high-return decision but she successfully adapted to the new music.

During the Asian Games, Choi had solid performances without major mistakes during the short and free programs as her nickname— Ms. Consistent— implies.

She had a clean performance in the short program on Thursday and earned 61.30 points, edging Japanese skater Rika Hongo with a 0.32 percentage of a point.

She made the finishing touches for her gold medal with her personal best score of 126.44 points in the free program at the Makomanai Ice Rink in Sapporo, Saturday.

Her performance in the long program was consistent. Skating to “Dr. Zhivago” as the final skater of 24 contestants, Choi began the free program with a clean triple lutz triple toe loop combination which was followed by another clean triple flip jump. There was a minor mistake in her triple salchow jump— her jump was under-rotated. But she was able to pull together another clean double axel jump, with two other clean jumps.

In an interview after finishing first in the women’s single, Choi was humble enough to say that she won the gold because several top-tiered skaters skipped the Asian Games to fully focus themselves on the world championships that will take place more than a month later.

She said she was happy to be able to win the gold medal there.

“Before this competition, I always had regrets about my performances because they were always worse than what I did during practices,” she said. “But this time, I have no such regrets.”

Choi won the gold at the Asian Games days after she placed 5th during the ISU’s Four Continents Championship held in Gangneung Ice Arena in Korea. The championship was also the test event for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Before Choi, Korea had two bronze medals in figure skating at the Asian Games. Kwak Min-jeong, who retired after the 2012 World Championships, placed third at the 2011 Astana Asian Winter Games, and ice dancers Yang Tae-hwa and Lee Chun-gun also won a bronze medal at the 1999 Asian Games.

Kim Yuna didn’t compete in the Asian Games until she retired after the Sochi Winter Olympics where she won a silver medal.

Choi said she would like to fully prepare for the forthcoming World Championships and her goal is to become one of the top 10 skaters there. If she successfully earns scores strong enough to become one of the top 10 skaters, Korea will be able to secure two places for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics — one for Choi and the other for one of her rivals. The Sapporo Asian Winter Games ended Sunday with the closing ceremony being held in the evening.

During the eight day event, Korea won 16 gold medals and placed second, following Japan.

Stars were born during the prolific Asian Games. Speed skater Lee Seung-hoon won four gold medals. Norwegian-Korean skier Kim Magnus won Korea’s first Asian Games gold medal in cross-country skiing.