The Story of Kim Yuna : 2006-2007 Season

During the summer of 2006, the landscape of ladies figure skating had been completely transformed. All three of the Olympic medalists in Torino had retired from competitive skating—Shizuka Arakawa, Sasha Cohen, and Irina Slutskaya. Each had made unique contributions through their performances on the skating world, but their departure left a void at the top. Who would step up to take their place?

The list of possible candidates included the reigning senior Grand Prix Final champion from Japan, Mao Asada, who like Yu-Na was now fully eligible for all senior competitions. Kimmie Meissner hadn’t yet won a US National championship, but had seized the moment at her first world championships as a senior. There were seasoned veterans like Japan’s Fumie Suguri, who had won the silver medal at worlds, and Miki Ando, who had finished a disastrous 15th at the Olympics, but had switched coaches to Nikolai Morozov. Morozov had been at Shizuka’s side when she won gold in Torino. Carolina Kostner, the 2005 world bronze medalist, had also had a disappointing Olympics experience in her own country, but was continuing and looking for better results. Finally, Canada’s Joannie Rochette had one of the best Olympic free performances of the night in Torino, but was unable to make up enough ground after the short program. If she could find consistency, then she could become Canada’s biggest podium threat since Liz Manley, and the timing was perfect, since the next Olympics would be taking place in Vancouver.

And then there was Yu-Na, the 2006 junior world champion. She was still the best in Korea, as she had been since she was twelve. Her previous year had been perfect and dominating, with multiple clean performances in both segments of the competition, capped off with her junior world title win against Mao Asada, whom she had placed behind twice during their first season competing as juniors. How would Yu-Na fare in her first senior season? Where would she land on the podium? Success as a junior did not guarantee success as a senior. It was an entirely different level of competition.

During the summer, Yu-Na went to Toronto to work with Canadian choreographer David Wilson, who had created programs for Jeffrey Buttle, Joannie Rochette, Sasha Cohen, and other elite figure skaters. He was the most high-profile choreographer that Yu-Na had worked with to date. David would choreograph a new long program for her, while Yu-Na would keep her Roxanne short program from the previous year.

While she was there, David Wilson received a call from Yu-Na’s former coach, who asked him to “make Yu-Na a happy skater.” David, with an outgoing and fun personality, seemed to be the right man for the job.

There were a number of reasons why Yu-Na was not, at this time, the happiest of skaters. She was still growing, and with her braces and her inability to speak English, her personality was quite shy. And while she had suffered from injuries and difficulties with her boots as a junior, it was becoming an even bigger issue. The cost of figure skating was ever escalating and lucrative endorsements were not forthcoming, and the thought of retirement had already crossed her mind. Yu-Na, in spite of her supremely good junior season, did not have a great deal of self-confidence at this time.

But regardless of external problems, that summer, Yu-Na grew to respect and admire David’s work as a choreographer. He, in turn, tried to draw Yu-Na out of her inner shell and bring a different side of her out in her program. It was the beginning of a beautiful figure skating relationship.

While Yu-Na was in Toronto, she also met Brian Orser—one of Canada’s figure skating legends. He was a former world champion and two-time Oympic silver medalist, who had won silver once behind American Scott Hamilton in the 1984 Olympic games, and then again in the famous “Battle of the Brians” in the 1988 Calgary Olympic games versus American Brian Boitano.

Brian was director of the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, a private, members-only rink. The Korean Skating Union asked Brian to look at some of Yu-Na’s jumps, such as the triple loop, and he graciously agreed. Brian had been nicknamed “Mr. Triple Axel” in his day, and though the jump wasn’t a priority for her, Yu-Na was interested in learning the jump from him.

Yu-Na liked Brian and his teaching style immediately. Though Yu-Na didn’t speak English and Brian didn’t speak Korean, they both spoke the language of skating. Brian, unlike many other coaches, could put his skates on, go onto the ice with her, and show her proper technique instead of dictating it from the side. They communicated silently, mostly through glances and gestures. As a former skater, he was familiar with both the mental and the physical demands of the sport. And as a person, Brian Orser was known to be kind, gracious, and very well-regarded within the figure skating community.

Without telling Brian first, Yu-Na’s mom signed Yu-Na up for lessons through the rest of the summer. Before the end of their time in Toronto, Yu-Na and her mom asked Brian to be her full-time coach. Brian at this time was nearing the end of a lengthy, successful career as a pro. The pro circuit for skating had gradually dwindled down from the height of its popularity in the 1990s. Along with Canadian ice dancer and Olympic bronze medalist Tracy Wilson, Brian was looking to build a skating program at the Toronto Cricket Club from the ground up, starting with little kids. He was incredibly impressed with Yu-Na’s talent and abilities. He was not, however, looking for a full-time coaching job training an elite senior skater. As a former world champion and Olympic medalist, he knew the kind of commitment that being a coach required, and he was not yet ready for it. So he declined.

However, since Yu-Na had been assigned to go to Skate Canada and Trophee Eric Bompard for her Grand Prix assignments, they asked him if he would go with Yu-Na to Skate Canada. Brian agreed.

Yu-Na would be otherwise accompanied by a Korean coach, Bun-Sun Park. However, she was most definitely not the answer for the journey to the Olympics.

In the long term, Yu-Na and her mom had not given up on the possibility of Brian Orser becoming her coach. Yu-Na had had a carousel of coaches growing up in Korea, and while they had all contributed to her development as a skater, in order to take her skating to the next level, Yu-Na would need a world-class coach. Brian Orser, on paper, did not seem to have the necessary coaching experience. But training for one summer with Brian had told Yu-Na and her mom all they needed to know. In terms of ability and personality, Brian Orser was the one.

Much like two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan became Yu-Na’s most favorite skater for her performances alone, regardless of the absence of an Olympic gold medal, Brian Orser was their top choice for her coach, regardless of the absence of an Olympic gold medal from his resume as a skater and any coaching experience at all. In fact, Brian Orser might have been their choice because he had gone into the 1988 Olympic games, taking place in Canada, with the intense burden of being his country’s greatest hope for winning a gold medal, had not accomplished that goal, and yet had survived that crushing disappointment.

And Brian had also gained valuable personal experience from his rivalry with Brian Boitano. Such experience would be helpful if the competition with Mao Asada, whom Yu-Na had only faced off against three times so far, were to heat up, though as yet, it was a little early to call it a rivalry.

If the goal for Yu-Na was only Olympic gold, then perhaps Brian Orser was not the expected choice. But if the goal was to survive the grueling path to the Olympics and learn how to carry the weight of a country’s expectations and endure disappointment in a sometimes cruel sport, then perhaps there was no one better to guide her than someone who had actually gone through it all.

Yu-Na was keeping last year’s short program, and luckily, she loved this program, having picked out the music herself. She was finally able to take advantage of the rules allowing for a triple/triple combination in the short program for senior ladies, and so she would include her triple flip/triple toeloop combination in her short program, a risky move that could pay off in the future if she was consistent at doing it.

Under 6.0, there had been little reward for including a triple/triple combination in the short for the ladies because only placements, not scores, carried over, and the priority was on being clean in the short program. One had to place in the top three in order to control one’s destiny in the free program, and the slightest hiccup on a landing could mean the difference between third and fourth. Under that scoring system, once rules had changed to allow ladies to attempt a triple/triple in the short, few of the top skaters who attempted a triple/triple in the long ever took advantage of it. The risk outweighed the reward.

Under the current judging system, there were benefits from attempting a triple/triple in the short program, since the extra points earned would count towards the total score that determined overall placement. At the recent Olympics, none of the eventual medalists had done so, but some of the younger skaters had, such as Kimmie Meissner and Elene Gedevanishvili, and Mao Asada had in her first season on the Grand Prix. With this new generation of skaters, Yu-Na would be attempting the triple/triple combination in the short, but only the results would tell if it was worth the risk.

The music for Yu-Na’s long was The Lark Ascending, by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and it was David Wilson’s idea. Yu-Na had fallen in love with the music immediately. It was filled with nuances that required intricate choreography and different expressions throughout for maximum effect, and far more demanding than her last long program.

Whereas “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” had been brooding and somewhat somber at times, here Lark Ascending was simply uplifting, reflective of its theme of a lark ascending to the sky. The image of the program was light and of springtime, and it brought out a side of Yu-Na that she hadn’t shown before. Paired with Roxanne, the two programs worked together to show Yu-Na’s expanding artistic range as a skater.

In terms of jump layout, Yu-Na would be keeping the same difficult combinations from the previous season, her triple flip/triple toeloop and double axel/triple toeloop combinations. However, it was during this summer that Yu-Na’s boot problems had begun to rear its ugly head. Yu-Na was finding herself changing boots more often than the average skater did. The triple loop was also proving itself more troublesome than ever. If the loop wasn’t stable, Yu-Na would not be attempting it in competition, which would be a first for her. She had attempted a triple loop at every competition in both junior seasons. It was difficult to guess exactly how these factors combined would affect her in both performance and result, but the first clue would come at the second Grand Prix event of the season, and her first, Skate Canada.

On November 2, 2006, Yu-Na made her senior debut at Skate Canada, the second competition of the Grand Prix season. For juniors moving up to the senior ranks, it was always a struggle to make themselves known to the judges, who at times were known to rely a bit too much on skate order and reputation in doling out marks. The commentators made note of her being the reigning junior world champion, but it remained to be seen if the judges would recognize and reward quality when they saw it from her. However, the most important thing Yu-Na had to do was deliver, and she’d be doing it in front of audiences far larger than she had ever experienced competing as a junior.

Yu-Na was the first of twelve skaters to take the ice in the short program, and deliver she did from the beginning to the end, with an impressive and passionate performance and a new costume. She landed her triple flip/triple toeloop combination with such speed and smoothness, Canadian commentator Rod Black noted it was done “like butter.” She landed a beautiful triple lutz out of footwork, garnered high marks for her layback spin, and her double axel out of the Ina Bauer was faultless.

As she struck her ending pose, Black noted, “We say her name now and I guarantee you we will be saying her name a lot in three and a half years if she continues to do what she is doing. This is someone who is so young and who will only be nineteen, twenty years old in Vancouver.” Several years later, it was Black who was again saying her name when he provided commentary for her performance in Vancouver.

Fellow commentator Tracy Wilson somewhat presciently said that Yu-Na would just have to stay on top of injuries. She admired Yu-Na’s flow, the confident landing position of her jumps, and Yu-Na’s speed in the entries and exits of her jumps.

From the boards, Brian Orser watched Yu-Na’s performance with Bun-Sun Park, and appeared to be saying words of encouragement, clapping enthusiastically and nodding along as Yu-Na nailed element after element. For someone who was not yet ready to commit himself to the demands of coaching, he certainly seemed invested in Yu-Na’s performance.

When the scores were in, Yu-Na had gained a new personal best in her senior debut. After all the skaters had gone, she found herself at the top of the scoreboard going into the long program. Yu-Na had been the only skater to perform cleanly with a triple/triple combination. However, she had earned her placement solely through the technical side, where she outskated the next highest skater, Japan’s Fumie Suguri, by a whopping seven points.

In terms of PCS, the more subjective mark, the judges had not been so generous, with Yu-Na receiving the fifth highest PCS, behind skaters who had major errors, such as Alissa Czisny (the defending Skate Canada champion), and behind skaters who were clean but who had weaker technical content. The range within the categories varied wildly for Yu-Na, from 4.75 to 7.25. No other lady who had placed in the top six had a single PCS mark less than 5.0 in any category. Skating first of all the skaters had clearly hurt Yu-Na in her scores, and being the reigning world junior champion hadn’t helped significantly. In fact, her PCS at Skate Canada was actually lower than what she had received in the SP at the 2006 Junior World Championship. She was undeniably competitive in everything that PCS was supposed to measure, and yet the judges had not rewarded her.

During her practice for the long program, Brian Orser was at the boards, and ESPN’s Peter Carruthers interviewed him, asking what they were working on. Brian pointed out that Yu-Na had all the big tricks already, but they were working on developing her speed, edge quality, transitions, and flow. He saw Yu-Na’s biggest strength as competing.

Two days after the short program, Yu-Na debuted her new long program to the Lark Ascending. As she took the ice, CBC’s Black introduced her by saying, “This is who I am really interested in seeing…she lit it up the other night.” Just as she had in her first season as a junior, Yu-Na was turning heads once again.

She opened with a glorious triple flip/triple toeloop combination, following it up with a graceful Ina Bauer into the double axel, and a lovely layback spin that received a Level 4, which was more difficult to achieve this season due to rule changes.

As Yu-Na skated, Tracy Wilson noted that Yu-Na had gone to David Wilson to work on her artistry, and she called it a “job well done.” ESPN/ABC commentators praised the quality of her arm movements, her layback spin, the expressiveness in her hands and even her back in the Ina Bauer, and how she was able to have difficulty in her jumps, spins, and transitions. The one issue they noted she needed improvement was conditioning and confidence, but she was obviously “a beautiful skater.”

Yu-Na’s first error was a step-out on the landing of the triple salchow, but she went on to do a camel spin with the difficult layover variation, which the Canadian audience applauded, perhaps remembering it from Canadian skater Josee Chouinard. She landed a beautiful triple lutz, but the biggest error yet was struggling with the triple toeloop in what was supposed to be a double axel/triple toeloop/double toeloop combination, which she had successfully done in practice. She had a hand down on the triple toeloop, which was downgraded, and so skipped the last jump. Stamina appeared to be an issue, as she then fell on the following triple lutz, and then struggled with her spiral sequence as well.

The errors might have been because of her on-going boot issues, or her physical condition, hampered by knee pain and a backache, but there were too many to overcome, and Yu-Na’s expression after finishing reflected disappointment. In the Kiss & Cry, Yu-Na smiled sheepishly after the scores came up putting her second behind Fumie Suguri. Though her jump errors had been costly in the technical side, the judges had perhaps realized they had undermarked her in PCS in the short program, and her PCS in the long improved to the third highest overall.

Yu-Na had left the door open for the other skaters, and Joannie Rochette, Canada’s national champion, took advantage, winning the long program and overcoming her short program deficit to win the Skate Canada title. Yu-Na finished fourth in the long program but managed to hang onto the bronze medal in her first senior competition, the first for any Korean skater in a senior ISU event.

Afterwards, she said of her first time competing as a senior, “I have recognized the difference between junior and senior stages. I was nervous because there were too many spectators today. I have learned the way to handle this situation and realized how much I lack experience.” It was an experience Yu-Na would definitely learn from.

Even though Yu-Na was new to the senior level, the elements in her program invited comparisons to figure skating champions of the past. Her Ina Bauer into the double axel in the long program reminded the ESPN commentator of Lisa-Marie Allen, and Ice Skating International Online noted that her landing of that jump with folded arms was in the manner of Don Jackson. Yu-Na was incorporating many of these unique finishing touches into a single program. The bent leg layover camel spin that Yu-Na had been doing for two years on the junior level had rarely been seen on the senior level since Tonya Harding and Josee Chouinard in the early 90s.

During the ESPN broadcast, the commentators compared Yu-Na to Mao Asada. Susie Wynne remarked, “Mao Asada had such a beautiful short program at Skate America and then just faltered in the free program. I think they’re very comparable. I think Mao has a little bit more strength and a little bit more confidence than Yu-Na at this point, plus she has the triple axel in her arsenal, so I think that Mao might have the edge at this point.” If Yu-Na were to gain in strength and confidence, perhaps that perception would change.

In an interesting coincidence, both Mao and Yu-Na made their season debuts with lovely short program performances, and then problems in their free had dropped them to third. They would both need a win at their next Grand Prix events to make it to the Grand Prix Final, where Mao would be defending her title. Mao’s next event was in her own country, at NHK Trophy, while Yu-Na would be going to France.

After the competition was over, Yu-Na performed her new gala to Christina Aguilera’s “Reflections” from Mulan, choreographed by her not yet true coach Brian Orser. As in the long program, she struggled with some of her jumps, but her skating reflected the poignancy of the lyrics and perhaps the current state of her skating career. The song asked, “When will my reflection show who I am inside?” The world had yet to see the true extent of Yu-Na’s abilities as a skater reflected on the ice.

Skate Canada Results

Skate Canada SP

Skate Canada LP

Skate Canada EX

Winning at Trophee Eric Bompard was looking to be an extremely tall order for Yu-Na, given the competition she would be facing. Miki Ando would be there, who had surprisingly won Skate America over Kimmie Meissner and Mao Asada. That competition marked the first time that Kimmie had beaten Mao, and Kimmie would be in Paris as well, in addition to the Skate Canada champion, Joannie Rochette. Kimmie had also not been able to defeat Yu-Na during the 2004-2005 junior season, but she would have her first chance since then to do so in Paris. All the skaters were looking to qualify for the Grand Prix Final. The field was undoubtedly tough.

This time, Yu-Na took the ice last of all the competitors. Miki Ando had gone into first, helped by landing a difficult triple lutz/triple loop combination. Kimmie Meissner had fallen and Joannie Rochette had a time violation, costly errors in the short program.

Yu-Na, wearing her old Roxanne costume with the long purple gloves, skated with absolute determination and fierceness, flashing a smile after each successful element. Though her footwork sequence was only judged a Level 1, everything else was high quality, garnering completely positive marks from all the judges. In the Kiss & Cry, Yu-Na was surprised and delighted by her total score, which had improved by 3 points over her score at Skate Canada, mostly due to a jump in PCS.

She had the highest technical score by just a point over Miki, but trailed Miki in PCS by less than one. She would be the leader going into the long program by 0.20, a lead too small to be significant. Whoever won the long program would win the competition. At her previous competition, Miki had recorded a personal best score in the long program of 125.85, which was nine points higher than Yu-Na’s personal best of 116.68 from her junior year. If Miki were to repeat her performance from Skate America, even if Yu-Na exceeded her personal best by 5 points, Yu-Na would win the silver and a spot in the Grand Prix final would not be guaranteed until all the GP competitions were over and the placements of all skaters had been sorted out. But that was nothing Yu-Na could control, she could only control her own performance.

In her long program, Yu-Na gave a performance far superior to that at Skate Canada. Her opening triple/triple combination was given incredibly high GOE. Yu-Na landed both of her lutzes without a problem, as well as her double axel/triple toeloop combination. She hit Level 3 and 4 on all of her non-jump elements. It was beautifully skated, but towards the end of her program, Yu-Na seemed to run out of steam, with a step out on her triple salchow and a fall on an easy double axel.

Jean-Christophe Berlot, writing for USFSA online noted, “The entire arena stopped breathing when she fell on her final double Axel, so incredible it seemed that she might fall.” ESPN/ABC commentators noted that it was a beautiful program, except for the disruptive fall, and they remarked on the quality and beauty of her skating and her moves. That was one of the risks in the Lark Ascending program, as a fall was so at odds with the soaring nature of the music, it could hamper the overall impression.

In the Kiss & Cry, clutching a number of stuffed animals, Yu-Na was thrilled with her scores, another new personal best. But since she had fallen, she had left the door open. Were her performances good enough for gold?

Kimmie and Miki had both, in the past, proven themselves capable of putting down a performance that would give them the win. But that did not happen. Kimmie, Miki, and Joannie all fell, with Kimmie notably attempting a triple axel but underrotating and falling on it. When the ice had cleared, Yu-Na won the long program by a large margin, with both the highest technical score and highest PCS, and she had her first win as a senior.

On the podium during the medal ceremony, Yu-Na looked happy and a bit amazed after receiving her trophy, as if she couldn’t believe it was real. In only her second competition as a senior, she heard her country’s national anthem play. Along with her first title on the senior Grand Prix, she got a ticket to her first senior Grand Prix Final. Step by step, competition by competition, Yu-Na was breaking down barriers. And her country started taking notice.

Trophee Eric Bompard Results

Trophee Eric Bompard SP

Trophee Eric Bompard LP

Trophee Eric Bompard EX

Unlike the Junior Grand Prix Final, which allowed for eight junior skaters to compete, only six would make it to the senior Grand Prix Final. Due to her win in Paris and bronze in Canada, Yu-Na was the fourth-ranked qualifier, having the same finishes as Mao Asada, with the third highest point total from both competitions.

The quirks of the qualifying system were seen in Hungary’s Julia Sebestyen qualifying, as she had not faced difficult fields in winning a gold and a silver, and in terms of points, she had only the ninth highest point total. Kimmie Meissner had faced decidedly tougher competition at both of her Grand Prix events, but a second and a third place was not enough to get her in. Joannie Rochette, too, was left out.

Undoubtedly, the skaters to beat at the Grand Prix Final included Miki Ando, the top qualifier in placement and second in points, and Mao, who had the highest point total and was the third ranked qualifier. Miki had completely turned her skating career around from the previous season, and was landing the most difficult combinations of anyone—the triple lutz/triple loop combination. Mao would be defending her Grand Prix Final title, and though she has missed her triple axel at Skate America, with disappointing results, she had rebounded in Japan at the NHK Trophy, where she set a record for the highest total score under the still young scoring system, breaking the previous one set by Irina Slutskaya, though falling just shy of the 200 point barrier, which had never been surpassed by any ladies skater.

Rounding out the field was Fumie Suguri, a veteran skater with quite a few successes on her resume, and Switzerland’s Sarah Meier, who had qualified for the first time in her career.

Qualifying

By the time of the Grand Prix Final in mid-December, Yu-Na was in her worst physical condition of the season, having to take painkillers for her back pain, and she had been struggling with her jumps in practice in Korea. During practices in St. Petersberg, she was both impressed and deflated by the athleticism of Miki and Mao, who were landing triple lutz/triple loop combinations and triple axels respectively.

At this competition, given Yu-Na’s back pain, she was simply hoping for a bronze. The fact that she had recently defeated Miki in France, and that she had won the junior world championships earlier that year over Mao, didn’t seem to matter in terms of her confidence. Realistically, she did not have higher hopes than third, though she certainly didn’t lack in willpower, or heart.

However, the Canadian broadcast did not seem to be aware of Yu-Na’s internal pessimism. In a segment that aired before the short program, they hyped Mao and Yu-Na as the ones to beat, saying, “Two of the contenders at this year's Grand Prix Final, are a pair of sixteen year olds, the reigning world junior champion, Yu-Na Kim of Korea, and the reigning world junior silver medalist, Mao Asada of Japan. And together, they are leading the way for the next wave of great female skaters.” In the tradition of historic battles for the gold, such as Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas, Midori Ito and Kristi Yamaguchi, Irina Slutskaya and Michelle Kwan, they predicted that Mao and Yu-Na would continue “challenging for the gold, each with their own style.”

Mao and Yu-Na had only competed against each other three times, all on the junior level, but the media everywhere was already salivating to make it into a rivalry for the ages. The history of the two skaters’ countries created a complicated background; though the war between the countries had ended long ago, the battles carried on in the athletic field, with additional pressure from the press and the public for a victory, even if the athletes themselves did not want the extra pressure.

In a comment that Yu-Na would continue to echo throughout her career, Yu-Na respectfully said, “Mao is a great skater, and last year she had a better skate than me at the [senior] Grand Prix Final. But I don't think of her as my rival, just as a great skater.” It was her way of respecting Mao as a skater, but downplaying the rivalry, which was already gathering more attention than it merited for two skaters so new to the senior level. Yu-Na herself had begun skating casually because a rink was near her house, but she had really fallen in love with the beauty of skating at the 1998 Olympics. She did not skate to beat one skater from one country, nor did she feel would it all be for nothing if she failed to beat that same skater.

Once the short program begun, it certainly seemed that bronze would be the best Yu-Na could do, at least for the present. Yu-Na, after having delivered two flawless short programs in the previous competitions, had her first missteps in the short here. She had a shaky landing on the triple lutz out of footwork, and unusual travelling on her final combination spin cost her an additional fraction of a point. Her opening triple/triple combination had been flawless and was quickly becoming her most reliable and valuable element, but in this segment of the competition, it wasn’t enough. Compared to her previous performances of Roxanne, this one fell short due to the errors, but her PCS had inched up nonetheless. She went into first, but with Miki and Mao yet to skate.

Both Mao and Miki had changed coaches prior to this season with overall excellent results. Both had won one competition with excellent performances and one where the wheels had fallen off. Still, at the GPF, Miki looked technically very strong, far different than the skater who had melted under the bright lights on Olympic ice. Mao had moved to California to train under Rafael Arutunian, who had last coached Michelle Kwan, and her programs were choreographed by Lori Nichol, who had done some of Michelle’s most memorable programs. It was a combination that appeared to be working, as Mao’s presentation had matured from the previous season, and her short program set to a selection from Chopin’s Nocturne matched the lightness in her skating.

Mao and Miki, both clean with all of their jumping passes, went into first and second respectively. Mao had a slight deduction on her triple lutz for the wrong edge takeoff, and Miki an even more minor one in her spiral sequence. But they landed triple/triple combinations that were worth more points than Yu-Na’s triple flip/triple toeloop, and they had a slight advantage in PCS as well. About two points separated each placement among the top three.

Sarah Meier skated cleanly in the sense that it was without a fall, but without a 3/3 and the doubling of two intended triples, she was in fourth, while both Fumie and Julia had major errors to keep them in fifth and sixth.

No one could have predicted how the placements in the short program would turn upside down in the long program. No one, including Yu-Na herself.

For the long program, she took the ice wearing a bandage wrapped around her back for support, but that was the only obvious sign of injury that Yu-Na showed. Yu-Na opened up with a lovely triple/triple combination, and then landed her double axel cleanly, but with a bit of a slide on the landing, so she did not attempt her usual triple toeloop in combination. Her triple lutz was clean, as was a tricky triple lutz/double toeloop/double loop combination. Yu-Na had regularly done a three-jump combination as a junior, but in a sign of the toll her injuries and boot issues had taken on her, this was the first time she had done one this season. She received a minor deduction on her flying sit spin, and a larger one for stepping out of her second double axel, which was giving her issues at this competition. However, since she had missed her double axel/triple toeloop combination, she smoothly added a double toeloop to what was normally a solo triple salchow towards the end of her program.

It was the first performance without a fall for Yu-Na this season, and though it wasn’t performed to the level that she was capable of performing it, the commentators praised it nonetheless. ESPN said during the footwork sequence, “She has a wonderful sense of her music, very comfortable and settled in her upper body. And she’s able to have continuous flow, nothing slows her blade down.” After it was over, the conclusion was, “And it all passed so quickly…I think that’s a sign of a great program…that was beautiful.”

CBC commented on how her victory in Paris was such a big deal in Korea, and correctly predicted, “I’m sure there are going to be many more events like that for them to celebrate in Korea.” The announcer just did not know how many more, or how much they would celebrate. In addition, the commentators talked about the “lovely, lyrical component about her skating” and how she flew into her triple/triple combination and carried the speed all the way through it. They observed that Yu-Na had superior skill, a well-balanced program, great variation of position in all of her spins, and it was, simply, “just a very, very excellent program.”

The judges agreed with the commentators. The score came very close to her personal best, set at Trophee Eric Bompard. Though it had no fall, it had been done without her second most difficult combination after her 3/3, the double axel/triple toeloop combination. The scoring system was such that a performance with more difficult combinations completed but a fall, such as the one she gave at Trophee Eric Bompard with both a 3/3 and a 2A/3T, could receive a higher score than a performance with one less difficult combination but no falls, which is what she had here. Still, the difficulty of the 3/3 and the quality of her other jumps, including two lutzes, kept her in front and she was easily placed into first.

With two skaters left to go, Yu-Na was assured of a bronze medal. In the Kiss & Cry, Yu-Na smiled and looked content, though not as ecstatic as when she had won the JGPF the year before, where she had been absolutely perfect, landing 7 triples and all of her difficult combinations.

Mao and Miki were next to skate. The Canadian commentators had noted that Yu-Na’s performance “should make those still to skate just a little bit nervous”. But what happened was shocking, and those expecting a competition as close as the short program had indicated were in for a disappointment.

In the biggest surprise of the night, Miki singled four intended triples, did not do a single combination, and only completed two triples. She placed last in the LP, behind much criticized skater Julia Sebestyen.

Mao’s program went awry from the beginning, with a fall on an underrotated triple axel. She regrouped for a clean double axel/triple toeloop, but that was the only combination she successfully completed. She skipped two other combinations, and had another fall and downgrade on a triple lutz. She placed fourth in the LP, and only her short program lead helped her to second ahead of Sarah Meier, with Yu-Na in first. Being the last to skate, the competition was officially over.

Yu-Na Kim had just won the Grand Prix Final by a margin of 11 points, skating for a country which had never even had skaters medal on the Grand Prix circuit before, let alone qualify for the GPF, let alone win. The GPF had been around since the 1995-1996 season and had changed format frequently since then, but it remained a tricky event to win; previous Olympic champions like Sarah Hughes and Shizuka Arakawa had never won one. In a sense qualifying for it was more difficult than qualifying for Worlds since it was limited to six skaters, based on their Grand Prix results. Current veterans like Joannie Rochette had qualified only once, while the current world champion, Kimmie Meissner, hadn’t qualified in either of her two senior seasons. Michelle Kwan had qualified for many, but had won just one to go with her five world titles; Irina Slutskaya had the opposite result, winning four GPFs with two world titles. No one would argue that a GPF win was equal in prestige to a world title, but it was a significant win nonetheless.

It was hard to determine what was more shocking, Yu-Na’s win this year over Mao and Miki, or Mao’s win the year before over Irina Slutskaya. Going into the 2005 GPF, people had been expecting a potential upset because Mao came in wielding a triple axel, and that year’s competition was taking place in Japan. But few could have predicted Yu-Na upsetting Mao here by the margin that she did, in spite of her previous win over Mao at the Junior World Championships. On paper, coming into the competition with very high personal best totals, Mao had been expected to put up a bigger fight in defending her Grand Prix Final title, and Miki had been expected to be a difficult challenger as well.

But that was figure skating, where the favorites didn’t always win, and it was unwise to crown victors before the competition had started and before it had ended. CBC noted, “In what was a tight race heading into the short program ended up being a blowout.”

Sometimes the skaters with the highest base value in terms of planned jumping layout didn’t win, because they didn’t execute. Skaters who went clean with an easier jumping layout, such as Sarah Meier, who had avoided falls but had no 3/3, did not win either. The winner was the skater who had the best balance between difficulty and execution. This time, it was Yu-Na.

Even the CBC commentators who had said after Yu-Na’s skate that the remaining skaters should be nervous were surprised at what they said could “only be described as a meltdown of the Japanese women.” One explanation was a flu that was going around. However, it had not been too long ago that Mao had a similarly poor long program performance at Skate America, and the memory of Miki’s disastrous Olympic experience had not yet faded either.

For Yu-Na, a win on the GP was one thing, but a win at the GPF over 5 top skaters was another. Certainly, it was a far more impressive credential than being the junior world champion. Many an excellent junior skater before Yu-Na and many after her struggled to find success on the senior level. The two skaters who had placed third behind Yu-Na and Mao at the 2005 and 2006 Junior World championships, Emily Hughes and Christine Zukowski, were just two of many junior skaters who had not broken through to a higher level of success on the senior level. Three competitions in, Yu-Na was conquering, and winning, this battle.

The CBC commentators noted, “Yu-Na now establishes herself as one of the skaters to beat heading to the world championships in March.” Judges, known to be hesitant to reward unknown and unproven skaters until they consistently proved themselves worthy, as evidenced by Yu-Na’s low PCS at Skate Canada, would perhaps be more fair to her at the 2007 Worlds.

Afterwards, Yu-Na was clearly in shock. She was happy, but she couldn’t believe it. In an interview with CBC, Erin Paul tried to ask Yu-Na about the rivalry with Mao Asada, which had now evened out to 2-2. Yu-Na answered immediately in Korean, and either didn’t understand the question or chose not to answer it. Her response: “I wasn’t expecting to win this event because I had had a lot of problems with my back injury. But then I had a good result, and I’m really happy. I can’t believe what just happened.”

In an interview with ESPN before the long program, Yu-Na noted that figure skating was not famous in Korea, but she had made it famous herself. She envied the teams of skaters from other countries that were getting together and playing around. She wanted Korea to have a bigger team of skaters. And finally, she wanted to be remembered and known as a good skater.

She would eventually get all of her wishes, though not all at once. Certainly, Yu-Na’s win in France had made headlines in Korea, and the GPF win would make skating even bigger in a country primarily interested in baseball, soccer, and golf. She wouldn’t have a team of skaters from Korea to go to competitions with, not yet. But her last wish started coming true with her GPF win.

Grand Prix Final Results

Grand Prix Final SP

Grand Prix Final LP

Grand Prix Final EX

2007 World Championships Results

World SP

World LP

Yu-Na won her first medal at Worlds, a bronze. But it wasn’t the color of the medal that mattered so much as what Yu-Na had shown to the world. Her artistry and technical talent was undeniable. Whereas before this year, many had not known her name, she had made herself into a skater to watch for the next two seasons going into Vancouver. Success on the junior level was one achievement, success on the Grand Prix another, but success at the World Championships one level above that. And perhaps success at the Olympics could follow, though it was still three years away, there were growing reasons to hope that it might not be such an impossible dream.

World EX

The color of the medal wasn't everything. A World bronze medal was an incredible achievement–little did anyone know that 2007 Worlds was where the medal drought for US ladies would begin–but it didn't reflect exactly what Yu-Na had done with her short program performance. It had simply been perfection. It had made a mockery of the pressure that had brought other skaters to their knees. In addition, 2007 Worlds was the first accomplishment of Yu-Na's where it was less about what she was doing for Korean skating (first to win this, first to win that) and more about what she was doing for ladies skating: first to ever skate a short program with such technical and artistic brilliance.

Against all odds, Yu-Na had stolen the spotlight at the World Championships from the expected skaters and made herself known to the world. She had struggled with injuries and boot problems, but now, not only did the skating world know who she was, but her own country was awakening to what a brilliant talent they had. Previously, only a smaller circle of devoted fans in South Korea had known of Yu-Na’s ability. Figure Figure skating was not a popular sport in Korea, but Yu-Na’s stunning success in her senior debut was going to change that, much like Midori Ito had been a pioneer for the sport in Japan.

And the future was bright. Brian Orser would be by her side, a fully committed coach assembling a team of coaches dedicated to tapping Yu-Na’s full potential. David Wilson, whom Yu-Na adored, would be her full-time choreographer. Toronto would be her year-long training place. Pieces were falling into place. She was the reigning Grand Prix Final champion, the reigning World bronze medalist, and a definite future threat for every podium—including the 2010 Olympics. While some other skaters might maximize their potential and still have to settle for a medal other than gold, Worlds 2007 provided there was reason already to believe that when Yu-Na reached her potential, she would not have to settle for anything less than gold.

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