Yu-Na Kim is a figure skater from South Korea.

She is the 2010 Olympic champion in Ladies' Singles, the 2009 World champion, the 2009 Four Continents champion, and a three-time (2006–2007, 2007–2008, 2009–2010) Grand Prix Final champion. She has won seven Grand Prix events.

As a senior, she has won every major championship currently possible for a ladies figure skater. She is the first female skater to win the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Four Continents Championships and the Grand Prix Final. As a junior, she won both major competitions available, the 2006 World Junior World Championships and the 2005–2006 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Yu-Na is also a four-time (2002–2005) South Korean national champion. She is the first South Korean figure skater to win a medal at an ISU Junior or Senior Grand Prix event, ISU Championship, and the Olympic Games. She is one of the most highly recognized athletes and media figures in South Korea.

At various times in her career, she has been ranked first in the world by the International Skating Union (ISU). She is the current record holder for ladies in the short program, the free skating, and the combined total, under the ISU Judging System. She is also the first female skater to surpass the 200-point mark under the ISU Judging System.

In-Depth: Scorecard | Records | Medals

• 2010 Olympic Champion
• 2009 World Champion
• 2010 and 2011 World silver medalist, 2007 & 2008 World bronze medalist
• 2006, 2007, and 2009 Grand Prix Final Champion
• 2009 Four Continents Champion
• 7-time winner on the Grand Prix
• 2006 Junior World Champion, 2005 Junior Grand Prix Final champion; 2005 Junior World silver medalist, 2004 Junior Grand Prix Final champion; 3-time winner on the Junior Grand Prix
• 4-time Korean National Champion

Name: 김연아

Preferred westernization: Yuna Kim

Also sometime known as: Yu-na Kim (ISU registered name), or Kim Yuna (Korean list surname first)

Nicknames given by fans and press:
Queen Yuna, Queen of Ice, Happy Skater, Korean National Little Sister, Korean National Daughter, Skater Text Book, Ices skating teacher/professor.

Date of Birth: September 5, 1990

Birthplace: Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Home town: Gunpo, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Height: 164cm

Family: Mr. Hyun Seok Kim, father; Mrs. Mi Hee Park, mother; Aera Kim, elder sister

Age started to skate: 7 years old in 1996, GwaCheon Ice Rink, Gyeonggi-do.

Hobbies: Internet web-surfing, Listening to music

Most favorite skater: Michelle Kwan

Other favorite skaters: Irina Slutskaya, Sasha Cohen, Carolina Kostner, Johnny Weir, Evgeni Plushenko, Alban Preaubert, Alexander Uspenski, Jeffrey Buttle, Tomas Verner, Daisuke Takahashi, Stephane Lambiel, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy

Current Coach: Peter Oppegard

Former coaches:

Brian Orser (2006-2010); Bun-Seon Park (2006.9-2007.1); Se-Yeol Kim (2005-2006); Hyeon-Jeong Ji (2004-2005); Se-Yeol Kim (2003); Hye-Suk Shin (2000-2003); Jong-Hyeon Ryu (1997-2000)

Choreographers: David Wilson, Sandra Bezic

Former choreographers: Catarina Dickson, Jeffrey Buttle, Jadene Fullen, Se-Yeol Kim, Catarina Lindgren, Chi Hyeon-Jeong, Tom Dickson

Main training site: East West Ice Palace in Artesia, California

Former training site: Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Canada.

Favorite Food: Bread, Chocolate, Korean food, Korean fried rice cakes.

Other talents: Singing, Dancing: Ballet, Hip pop, Swing. Making Music Videos, News reporting (TV sketch quality). Learnt Piano, Violin and Ballet when she was younger.

Hobbies: Web surfing, Karaoke with friends, putting up kick ass ice shows, taking pictures for her Cyworld, eating a lot of delicious food during off seasons.

Favourite artists: Lady Gaga, Boa, Wondergirls, SNSD, Brown Eyed Girls.

Favourite Colour: Black, White, Red, Blue, Purple

Favourite Pets: Two dogs: Toto and Hanuri

• Yuna starting ice skating when she was 7.
• Yuna accomplished her first triple when she was 10.
• Yuna learned how to jump 5 sets of triples by age 12, excluding the 3A.
• Yuna stopped (probably) learning 3A due to injuries.
• Yuna is well-known for her speed and flow across the ice.
• Yuna has competed with 3 sets of 3:3 combinations.
  • Triple Lutz-Triple Toe loop (most recent)
  • Triple Flip-Triple Toe loop
  • Triple Toe loop-Triple Toe loop
  • The quality of her 3:3 are exemplified by the superb quality of the first jump followed by a 2nd which are great in height, flow and distance as well. The jump can fly as much as 25 feet in distance.
• Yuna's combination move, 3-jump-combination
  • Triple Lutz-Double toe loop - double loop
  • [Ina Bauer entrance] Double axel-double toe loop - 'tano double loop (arm in the air in the fashion of Brian Boitano)
• Yuna's signature moves
  • The Yuna “Camel” Spin. Her variation of the bent leg back camel spin first started by Josée Chouinard, and also made famous later by Tonya Harding.
  • Ina bauer into a double axel.
  • Yuna's triple Lutz is textbook and widely acclaimed.

Video of her Signature moves

Yu-Na was born and raised in a country not known for producing figure skating champions. There were no world class facilities, no successful coaches, and not much interest or even awareness of the sport at all. In fact, before Yu-Na, no Korean skater had ever won a medal at an ISU junior or senior Grand Prix event, Championship, or Olympics. Little did she, or anyone in Korea, know that she had the talent to win all of those, including the ultimate crown jewel in figure skating–the Olympic gold medal. In the beginning, she was simply a girl who liked to skate.

She started skating for fun at the age of 7, when an ice skating rink opened up near her home. Watching the 1998 Olympics showdown between Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski, she became entranced. She watched their programs over and over again, even imitating their moves. Michelle Kwan became her lifelong skating idol and inspiration, even though Michelle never won an Olympic gold. Over time, Yu-Na's philosophy on skating and competing was that even though the result mattered, it was more about the performance than the final result and becoming a skater who would be remembered.

Her talent was noticed and nurtured by Korean coaches and her mother provided the means for Yu-Na's training. At an early age, Yu-Na went overseas during the summer for training camps in the United States and Canada with world class coaches. By the age of 12, she had mastered all five basic triples. That was also the age that she won her first Korean national championship–as a senior. Certain skills that were very difficult for many other Korean skaters were just easier for Yu-Na.

But not everything was easy. Financing skating was not easy for her family. Boot issues, injuries, lack of a top notch training facility, and lack of an experienced coach all affected Yu-Na in her early years, and even through her first year as a senior. Korea itself was a modern country but in terms of proper skating resources, its skaters were practically impoverished.

She won two international competitions as a novice, the Triglav Trophy and the Golden Bear. But her first real test came as a 14-year-old junior in the fall of 2004 when she made her debut at JGP Budapest, where she had a clean free skate with six triples and won the gold. She took the silver at the 2004-2005 Junior Grand Prix Final and the 2004-2005 Junior Worlds where stumbles in the Long Program and Short program respectively kept her from contending for the gold, which went both times to 14-year-old Mao Asada. But sometimes the color of the medal didn't tell the whole story. Her free skate at the 2005 Junior Worlds was perfect, without a single missed jump and without a single average negative mark from the judges. Overall, it was an incredible debut season for Yu-Na, and it was just the beginning.

Over the course of the next season, 2005-2006, Yu-Na returned to the junior level and won every single competition she entered, and won both the short program and the long program every time. Her 2005-2006 LP performance at the Junior Grand Prix Final was her best yet to date, with seven triples, and several difficult combinations that many senior ladies were not attempting, including what would become her trademark, the triple flip/triple toeloop combination.

Mao Asada had competed on the senior Grand Prix, even pulling off a surprising upset of Irina Slutskaya in the senior Grand Prix Final, but she returned to the junior level at the 2006 Junior Worlds to attempt to defend her title. But nothing could stop Yu-Na, and her fiery Tango de Roxanne SP, and her excellent triple flip/triple toe combination. Yu-Na placed emphasis on both artistry and musicality as well as in the difficulty of her jumps, and it showed as she won both the short program and the long program, both the technical mark and the “artistic” mark in the program components, in winning 2006 Junior Worlds.

This was also the Olympics season, but Yu-Na was barred from entering due to age rules, born less than 3 months too late. Skaters she had competed against–and beaten at the 2005 Junior Worlds were in Torino that year, making it into the final group, but not Yu-Na. History would never know how she would have fared had she been there.

The 2006-2007 season was one of astonishingly high highs and some sad lows, and many firsts. It was her first time she worked with David Wilson, who choreographed her Lark Ascending long program. She kept her Tango de Roxanne short program. It was also the first time that she met and worked with Brian Orser, who accompanied her to Skate Canada and, by the end of the season, was her official coach at Worlds. Yu-Na was continually dogged by boot issues and lack of conditioning. Still, step by step, she began building a sterling reputation for herself as a senior.

Yu-Na made her debut at Skate Canada with a beautiful performance in the short, though mistakes in her long program left her with a bronze. Yu-Na went on to win Trophee Eric Bompard over reigning world champion Kimmie Meissner and a resurgent Miki Ando, and then shocked everyone by winning the Grand Prix Final, where Mao Asada and Miki Ando had surprising mistakes.

Yu-Na had a temporary, interim coach for much of this, and then injuries took their toll as she could not compete at Korean nationals for the first time in her career. But she recovered enough to make her mark at the 2007 Worlds in Tokyo, as a thrilling performance of Tango de Roxanne broke an old scoring record set by Sasha Cohen in the SP, leaving commentators around the world awed. Falls on two lutzes in the long program would leave her in third, but Yu-Na was not at all unhappy. She wanted to climb the podium one step at a time, and this was just the beginning. And if she could accomplish this injured, what could she do when healthy?

When asked about the importance of placement in May 2007, Yu-Na's answer was, “It's important but if there are 100 athletes in the world, not all of them can reach the top. And when you become the number one in the world, you can't be on the top of podium every single time, and you can fall into slump anytime unexpectedly…That's how many athletes feel from their point of view. Is it? Does first place really mean everything? For the bronze medal I won in the last WC competition, people and press around me talked about disappointment, heartbreak, and regret. I don't feel any of those but media do talk about that kind of stuff.”

Yu-Na's 2007-2008 season began with Brian Orser set to be her coach through the Olympics. Yu-Na had an even better Grand Prix season than last year, winning both of her Grand Prix events, Cup of China and Cup of Russia, and she set a new world record for the LP in Russia along the way. She then won her second consecutive Grand Prix Final title, the first time she had defended a title. But injuries in January of 2008 prevented her from competing at the 2008 Four Continents Championship in her own country. She was counted out by some in the 2008 Worlds SP after a fall left her in fifth, but she rebounded to win the free and ended up with the bronze in what was a messy competition across the board. Any world medal was always an impressive accomplishment, but a promising, successful season had a disappointing end in that it ended similar to the one before, plagued by injury.

The 2008-2009 season was critical because it was the last season before the Olympics, and it would be Yu-Na's last chance to win Worlds. The winner would also be considered the favorite going into the Olympics. Four of the previous five ladies Olympic champions had been world champions, and three of those four had been the reigning world champion.

Yu-Na came out with arguably the best programs of her career, with Danse Macabre as her short program and Scheherazade for her free skate, music which had been chosen by her and was inspired by Michelle Kwan's use of it. She won both of her Grand Prix events, Skate America for the first time and a second consecutive Cup of China win. She overcame a disappointing loss to Mao Asada at a pressure-packed 2008-2009 Grand Prix Final in her country by rebounding to win the 2009 Four Continents Championship, which took place in Vancouver, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was a good omen. She then won 2009 World Championships in Los Angeles in record breaking fashion, with a thrilling performance of Danse Macabre SP and breaking the 200-point barrier with her LP. Yu-Na's tears on the podium showed how much winning Worlds, finally, in her third try, meant to her.

For the 2009-2010 Olympics season, Yu-Na came out with a stunning new direction with her sultry, fierce James Bond Short Program and an elegant, sophisticated Gershwin Long Program. The Olympics season with its own unusual pressures on everyone had its own ups and downs. An astonishing debut at Trophee Eric Bompard where Yu-Na blew away the competition was followed up by Skate America, where she proved nearly perfect in the short and all too mortal in the free. She went on to win her third Grand Prix Final title.

Then came the Olympics where, as fate would have it, she was set to skate her short program after Mao Asada. Mao had not skated her short program perfectly all season long until the Olympics, but right after she did, Yu-Na unblinkingly stood strong and broke her own short program record and placed first after the short. In the long program, fate reversed their order, with Yu-Na skating before Mao. This time, Yu-Na, who had not skated her own difficult Gershwin LP perfectly yet this season, skated it flawlessly on Olympic ice. She broke down in tears after her performance, long before the scores were announced which gave her an astronomical total. It was Olympic magic, the kind of performance that every figure skater dreams about having with the spotlight on them and the Olympics rings painted on the ice beneath their blades. Perfection was rewarded with a record score of 150.06. Yu-Na was unable to hold back her tears as she stood on top of the Olympic podium, the first from her country to ever do so in figure skating.

After the Olympics, Yu-Na had a whirlwind victory tour through Korea and back to Toronto. She experienced post-Olympics letdown and could not find the desire to go to the 2010 Worlds. But she had committed, and so she went. She had a disappointing short program but managed to pull up to second overall after the free. What was most impressive was her smile on the podium with her silver medal, very reminiscient of the smile that she had when she won the silver in the 2008-2009 GPF in Korea. It was a sincere smile of happiness and relief. In her two biggest victories over the past two seasons, Yu-Na had shed tears; after winning her two silver medals over the past two seasons, Yu-Na smiled.

During this Olympic quad (Fall 2006-spring of 2010), in addition to her biggest wins, Yu-Na was the only ladies skater during this time to medal at every Worlds, medal at every competition, and win at least one major title (Grand Prix Final or World Title or Olympic title) during each season. Her total of 3 Grand Prix Finals and seven regular Grand Prix golds were more than any other skater.

After the Olympics season, Yu-Na had a busy off-season, celebrating her Olympic triumph in Korea, having multiple ice shows, and PR commitments, and charitable endeavors such as UNICEF. She had a longer break than before and, anticipating that it would take longer than normal to get back to top condition, opted to skip the Grand Prix. At the end of August, it was announced that Brian Orser would no longer be her coach. The reasons for the split were not disclosed.

Yu-Na relocated to Los Angeles, also home to a large Korean-American community, and trained at East-West Palace in preparation for the 2010 All That Skate LA. After the show, it was announced that Peter Oppegard would be her coach for the season. The plan was to go straight to Worlds.

After a natural disaster struck Japan, the 2011 World Championships was relocated to Moscow, Russia at the end of April. Juggling various commitments to Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics committee, Yu-Na re-arranged her schedule to compete in the re-scheduled Worlds. In the short program, skating to music from the ballet Giselle, she won with a narrow margin over Miki Ando. Yu-Na skated to a medley of Korean folk music, including the famous Arirang, as an “Homage to Korea” for her long program. She landed the most difficult triple/triple combination of the competition but missed another jump, and so the results were reversed with Miki Ando winning the segment and the overall competition.

On the podium, Yu-Na, thinking about everything that had happened within the past year, began crying. “Tears started to fall just for the fact that I was standing there on the podium. I don’t know exactly why I cried, tears just started streaming down. I think I was emotional because I was on the podium after a long time after all the difficult things I’ve been through.” (Source)

The silver at 2011 Worlds was Yu-Na's fifth consecutive medal and her second silver, giving her the longest world medal streak (since 2007) in the ladies since Michelle Kwan, who medaled at every Worlds from 1996 to 2004.

Yu-Na's accomplishments and her skating have earned her the respect of her peers, including compliments from fellow competitors such as Carolina Kostner and Laura Lepisto, as well as retired skaters such as Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, Michelle Kwan, Scott Hamilton, Dorothy Hamill, Timothy Goebel, and others. Figure skating commentators from around the world have praised her, from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and more.

Her impact upon Korean figure skating is unique and undeniable, a pioneer like Midori Ito was for Japan, as beloved as Michelle Kwan was by the United States. In terms of figure skating history, she won the Olympics in a way no other ladies figure skater had ever before, as well as the first to win all current major ISU championship titles. She is also cited as a role model by skaters from countries which, like Korea, did not have a rich history of figure skating, such as Netherlands and Belgium. And she has also inspired young skaters from countries like Russia and the United States, which do have a rich history of ladies figure skaters.

She is admired not only for her actions on the ice, but for how she has conducted herself off the ice as well. Vanessa Lam, a figure skater from the United States, said, “Yuna Kim motivates me in so many ways. On the ice, she is one of the best skaters in history with her triple-triple combinations. Off the ice, she is a perfect role model by being humble in any situation. If I become a well-known skater, I hope to be as good of a role model to others as Yuna Kim is to me.” (Source)

Though Yu-Na's career is not yet finished nor is her legacy completely known, what she has done already has already left a lasting impression on audiences, current, retired, and upcoming skaters, showing that Yu-Na is a skater who will be remembered.

• Charities Yu-Na has Donated to
• Causes Yu-Na has Supported
• Endorsements
• Awards and Honors