Korea’s top figure skater Kim Yu-na (19, entering Korea Univ.) has won the 2009 ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, which ended Feb. 7 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada, with a total score of 189.07 points. She is the first Korean to win the event. Korea's highest score until now had been in last year’s championship held in Goyang, Korea, when Kim Na-young finished in fourth place. Now Kim Yu-na has rewritten Korean figure skating history. In the 2008-2009 season, she had won two grand prix series. Her third win of the season was due to her best performance ever. Kim Yu-na won the bronze in the 2007 world championship, her first performance after her debut on the senior stage, and it was another monumental first by a Korean. She also won a bronze in the next world championship. But the injuries she suffered over the past two seasons have thoroughly toughened and prepared her to avoid chronic injuries for this season, allowing her to compete in the Four Continents Championships in the best shape of her career as she delivered a superb performance based on accurate techniques. Her remaining goal is to be the first Korean to win the world championships.


Power, skill and determination leads to victory

Her accurate use of her skate edges and powerful textbook-perfect jumps are a testament to the importance of basic skating skills. Fans wondered how Kim Yu-na would diversify her techniques in the new season but she continued to focus on accuracy. Technique-wise, her latest program was not much different from her program last season, but her expressive acting woven into the strong background music and her far more accurate jumps have earned her top acclaim as the world's best. Experts unanimously agree that her triple-triple jump combination is clean and accurate and unrivaled throughout the world. She was the only contestant in the Vancouver championship who did not receive minus points in the triple flip-triple toe loop combination. Figure skating depends on nimble decision making, physical strength and firm commitment. Kim Yu-na's nickname is "brazen-faced." When she makes a mistake, she quickly calms down and moves on to the next step. In the 2007 Grand Prix final short program, she was the last to perform. Her hand accidentally touched the ground during the first jump-–a triple jump combination--but she safely completed the remaining program to get the best score of the season. In the free skating program at the same event, she fell down during a triple loop but perfectly performed the rest of the program and won the gold. In the latest championship, in the free skating event, she attempted a triple loop in her second jump but the judges scored it as a single loop. But she did not panic and admirably pulled off the remainder of her five jumps. Kim Yu-na set her mind to become the world’s best figure skater after watching Michelle Kwan perform. She was close to giving up on her dream during tough times but she always did her best based on her motto, "No Pain, No Gain." She believed that the world would notice her when she overcame trials, failures and battles with her own mind.


Her firm support, her mother

Behind Kim Yu-na’s journey is her mother, Park Mi-hee (49). Park always stood by Kim Yu-na as a mother, coach and friend. In fact, her life has been solely devoted to Yu-na. It was more than simply making time for her daughter; she shifted her life focus entirely to her daughter’s skating. She was her chaperon. She watched every moment of Yu-na’s training, and Park also learned to skate herself. But supporting Yu-na was tough in terms of financial costs and the effort to take her to the ice rink every single day for practice. Park was taking an art class at a department store cultural center to belatedly realize her own dreams, but she had to give up all her personal time. There was one time when Kim Yu-na nearly had to give up skating entirely due to various reasons. Kim Yu-na’s father’s business collapsed in the wake of the financial crisis in the late 1990s, and Yu-na also suffered an injury at the time. Her family decided to call it quits, but changed their mind after Kim Yu-na successfully showcased all five triple jumps in an event which they thought would be her last. Kim Yu-na and her family overcame all their trials with hope. We see that the benefit of parents supporting their children from the background surpasses that of parents pulling their children along from the forefront. Park has chronicled her ten years of supporting Yu-na in the book "Attach wings of dreams to your child’s talent," which details the full behind-the-scenes saga of Kim Yu-na’s whole career.


Ahead of the world championship

Kim Yu-na will train hard in Toronto for the 2009 world championships, which will be held from March 23 to 29 in Los Angeles. After the games, in Korea, she will rest and also enjoy her freshman life at Korea University, where she will major in physical education. She will perform again at home in an Ice Show around April and May. In May, she will return to her training ground of Toronto to prepare for the 2009-2010 season. Her charismatic performance has heated up Korea’s winter. Koreans’ love for Yu-na will likely continue for a long time.