Legend of the Winter

Posted: 2010/02/27  By: Another Kim (Views:464)

She appeared to be floating...

-The New York Times

While each of those skaters had moments of brilliance, Kim - who skated to Gershwin’s
“Concerto in F” - was the only one to have an entire four minutes of it.

Wearing a royal blue dressed that fluttered in the wind, she sped atop the ice, seamlessly
incorporating triple jumps into her complex routine, as if it were as natural as breathing. Her
complicated footwork left gigantic, loopy scribbles all over the ice, but as she moved, she
appeared to be floating. She punctuated the entire routine with a sweet smile.

There were simply no flaws...

-The Times

There were simply no flaws in her performance, from her skating to her expressions to an
immaculate cobalt blue dress. When she finished, Kim bent over and covered her mouth. So many
stuffed toys and flowers littered the ice the full complement of sweepers had to be deployed
not once, but twice.

Way beyond anyone's reach...

-CNN

After the brilliance of the short program, it was hard to imagine there wouldn't be a
letdown. How could South Korea's Kim Yu-Na be perfect a second night in the face of the
suffocating pressure of expectations? How could Japan's Mao Asada skate mistake-free again and
push Kim with her amazing arsenal of triple axels. And, most poignantly, how could Canada's
Joannie Rochette keep herself together in the free skating program just four days after her
mother's sudden death after arriving in Vancouver to watch her compete?

Yet, somehow, it wasn't the anticlimax we feared. No, it wasn't as extraordinary a night as
Tuesday's short had been, but it was almost everything the 11,700 spectators in the Pacific
Coliseum hoped it would be. Kim's brilliance was, again, unparalleled, and she put herself
squarely atop any list of the greatest Olympic champions of all time. Skating first of the
three medalists, Queen Kim set a standard the others could not hope to reach, shattering every
record and winning every heart in her path. Skating to Gershwin's Concerto in F in a royal blue
cocktail outfit, Kim was enthralling, landing all six of the triple jumps she'd planned,
spinning effortlessly, and performing a languid spiral sequence that hushed the crowd with its
beauty.

Knowing her most difficult elements were behind her, Kim was able to fully emote the final
minute of the program, holding her head at an expressive tilt, her arms fluttering weightlessly
at her side like strips of ribbon in the wind. The audience was on its feet as soon as she
pumped her fists in the air in an unusual display of emotion after her final, rollicking spin.
And as she bowed to the crowd in appreciation, to her own surprise tears of joy came into her
eyes. The judges saw it the same way everyone else did, giving her an eye-popping 150.06
points: 16.11 higher than her previous free skating record. Including the 78.50 she'd earned in
her short program -- also a record -- Kim shattered her own world record with a total of 228.56
points. "I still can't believe the score I received," said Kim, the first Korean to win a
figure skating medal of any kind. "I predicted my score would probably be 140. It's almost as
high as the men's score."

The total was way beyond anyone's reach. So with Kim's gold secure, the only question
remaining was who would win silver and bronze. Japan's Asada, the only woman to beat Kim in the
last two years (she'd done so twice) was the next to skate, and she held just a 2.42 point lead
over Rochette. But Asada had a very big weapon that no one else in the field had: the triple
axel, and she was poised to use it twice.

They already called her "Queen Yuna"...

-Los Angeles Times

They already called her "Queen Yuna" in South Korea.

And Kim Yuna spread her dominion to an absolute reign over the women's figure skating world
after the Olympic women's figure skating final Thursday night.

Skating a stunningly difficult program without an error, floating like a feather in the wind
to the airy, jazzy rhythms of Gershwin's Concerto in F, unflinchingly bearing the weight of her
country's hopes, Kim crushed her rivals with a performance for the ages.