By Jay Yim
So it’s official now. You can believe the hype.
Kim Yu-Na is the gold medalist in Ladies Figures Skating. Her performance at last night’s free skate program featured such incredible athleticism, speed, grace that it seemed to redefine the term perfection.
It was so perfect, she earned a score of 150.06 for her free skate program, and finished with a the total score of an astonishing 228.56 points, breaking the world’s record using the new ISU Juding system, and shattered the previous world record she had set by 16.11 points.
It was so perfect NBC commentator Sandra Bezic exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, this is glorious. This is one of the greatest Olympic performances I have ever seen.”
It was so perfect, the fact that Mao Asada’s historic performance, which featured two triple axels to compile a total score of 205.50 points (which would have earned her a gold medal at other Olympics) wasn’t enough to overtake her.
It was so perfect that it seemed like you were watching Secretariat’s 31 length victory at the 1973 Belmont Stakes, Tiger Woods’ 12 stroke victory at the 1997 Masters, or Villanova play the perfect game against Georgetown in 1985 all over again.
It was so perfect that Kim herself couldn’t seem to believe what she had just accomplished.
“I still cannot believe I did … I have been dreaming about this moment and I cannot believe it is not a dream anymore,” she said.
And perhaps the most amazing aspect of Kim’s performance were the circumstances it came under. Yes, it’s been said so many times, but the incredible expectations and pressure Kim had to deal with can’t be emphasized enough. Heading into last night’s free skate program, I felt nervous, wondering how the people of Korea would treat her if she had some kind of slip up costing her the gold medal. Would she get stuck with the dreaded “choker” label for the rest of her life?
But like all great athletes, Kim rose to the occasion in Michael Jordan-like fashion and delivered a performance of the ages.
She is now Korea’s true Wonder Girl. There’s “Nobody, Nobody” like her. Memo to Jin Young Park: Kim is also a fine singer so maybe you should consider adding her to the Wonder Girls lineup.
In the meantime, we can all be so proud of her as we reminisce about the performance of a lifetime by a truly gifted athlete.
