Skate Star Kim Wins Grand Prix Bronze

Figure skating star Kim Yu-na (16, Gunpo Suri High School) became the first Korean to win a bronze medal at the International Skating Union Senior Grand Prix of Figure Skating November 5.

The second round of the 2006-2007 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating took place at the Save On Foods Memorial Center, Victoria, Canada. Kim Yu-na got 105.80 points from the female single free skate. Adding this to 62.68 points from short program two days ago, she won third place with a total of 168.48 points.

With this result, she won the junior stage and came closer to the top of the world at her debut on the senior stage.

Kim was expected to win the gold medal because she unexpectedly won first place in the short program on November 3. Moreover, skaters who have the world first and second ranking did not participate in this event.

She was the eighth skater on the stage and started to perform moves to the beautiful melody of “The Lark Ascending.” However, it turns out that free skating was too much of a burden for Kim because she could not train properly due to knee pain as well as a backache. She has not practiced any new choreography since she came back to Korea.

Kim fell down while landing triple Lutz in the middle of her performance. Her landing of her triple Salchow was not perfect, and she made a mistake of taking her leg down for a moment in her spiral move.

She lost one point and won 168.48 points total. Kim earned 0.28 points fewer than silver medalist Fumie Suguri (168.76 points) en route to her third-place finish and the bronze. The gold medal went to Canadian Joannie Rochette (173.86 points), who finished fifth at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games.

“I have recognized the difference between junior and senior stages,” Kim Yu-na said. “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.”

jaeyuna@donga.com