The Story of Kim Yuna : 2005-2006 Season

Fall 2005 marked the start of the Olympic season, but Yu-Na would again be competing as a junior. Skaters she had just competed against at Junior Worlds, such as Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, would be skating on the Senior Grand Prix and were eligible to compete at the Olympics.

But not Yu-Na. The best figure skater in Korea was simply not old enough, missing the deadline by two months. People would joke that Yu-Na’s mother should have given birth two months earlier.

If Yu-Na wanted to compete in the Olympics the following year, Yu-Na showed no hint of such a desire, nor any resentment of the age rule that locked her out. In an interview in March 2005 with Korea’s SBS television network, she was already looking towards the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where her hope was to get Korea’s first Olympic medal in figure skating. When the reporter asked her if they could trust in her to do that, she laughed, ducked her head, and simply said, “I don’t know.”

Why didn’t Yu-Na voice hopes for the Olympic gold? Perhaps because no Korean skater had ever been a contender in figure skating at all before, especially at the Olympics, where the Olympic gold was considered the greatest prize in figure skating. Maybe she was not yet fully aware of her own potential and talent, and she did not yet dare to say such a grand dream out loud.

Yet also, consider that at the age of seven, Yu-Na watched the 1998 Nagano Olympics. She watched the programs of the Olympic ladies gold and silver medalists over and over again, so much so that she almost memorized them. But it was the figure skater who won silver, not gold, who became Yu-Na’s skating idol: Michelle Kwan, five-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist, known for her artistry and legendary performances.

It was apparent even then that as Yu-Na worked harder to become a better and better skater, her biggest wish was to be a skater who would be remembered and loved, just as she herself remembered and loved Michelle’s skating.

It would be a while yet before Yu-Na would dare to say out loud that she dreamed of the Olympic gold medal, as all figure skaters do from the time that they are first inspired to step onto the ice. For the time being, she was not looking towards competing at the Olympics yet. 2010 was very far away.

In order to progress as a skater, Yu-Na made changes in the off-season. As a novice and now as a junior, she generally kept every short program for two years and every long program for two years. This year, she would have a new short program.

Yu-Na’s coach for the 2004-2005 season was Kim Se-Yeol. He recommended to her that she watch the film musical Moulin Rouge, the 2001 Oscar-nominated film starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. The song she liked most, “El Tango de Roxanne,” would become the music for her new short program, combined with music from Despertar by Ástor Piazzolla. The Moulin Rouge version of the song was based off of the classic “Roxanne” by the Police. Now Yu-Na would be giving the Moulin Rouge version her own stamp—on ice.

Tom Dickson, an American choreographer and coach, choreographed Yu-Na’s short program. His wife, Catarina Lindgren, had choreographed three of Yu-Na’s previous programs.

Using tango music was surely a challenge for a fifteen-year-old, but Yu-Na was up for it. It was equally important for a skater to develop their artistry as well as their technical skills. Every athlete must be competitive if they are going to participate in a sport, and Yu-Na had her own fierce competitive spirit that drove her. She later remarked, “When I was little, I was the kind of skater who did great every time my coach and I bet on my performance.” Once Yu-Na had goals in front of her, she went out and achieved it.

One of Yu-Na’s goals was to show her personality and work on her facial expressions. In particular, she worked on looking fierce to express the fiery nature of the tango music. The expressions, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, came out naturally as she practiced, under the guidance of her coach, Kim Se-Yeol, who provided a more relaxing atmosphere to train than her previous coach. Previously, the emphasis had been on technique and the technical aspects of skating. While that focus provided Yu-Na with a solid foundation, under Kim Se-Yeol, Yu-Na would take a big step forward in the artistic side and using her whole body, including the face, to develop the expressions which had been absent before.

This season in the short program, the triple lutz was the jump required out of footwork for juniors. Outside of the triple axel, the lutz was the most difficult of the five standard triple jumps to master, requiring one to take off an outside edge. Many skaters tended to “flutz” or obviously switch to an inside edge.

While Yu-Na might pop the lutz, fall on the lutz, or double the lutz…she would never, ever take off an inside edge. Perhaps she had heard of the flutz controversies that had followed skaters such as Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes during their career. (Sarah Hughes, had, in fact attempted to hide her flutz from the judges by placing the jump in the corner away from where they sat.) Or perhaps Yu-Na simply prided herself on having a true lutz. Whatever the reason, as unlucky as she had been the previous season with the triple loop being the required jump in the short program, she was luckier this season with the triple lutz being the required jump. It was one of her best jumps.

Yu-Na also began attempting an Ina Bauer with a layback into a double axel, timed perfectly to the tango music as it neared its dramatic climax. She had previously used this move as a transition, but not as an entry into a jump. If she was able to do it correctly, she would gain extra points than for a double axel and an Ina Bauer done separately.

Her other goal was to upgrade the jumps in her long program. While she was keeping the same music and choreography from the previous year, set to “Papa, Can You Hear Me?”, she was drastically changing the jumping layout. She was starting by upgrading her triple/triple combination. The triple toe loop/triple toe loop combination was considered the easiest of the triple/triple combinations, and it was worth the least amount of points. She would now attempt the triple flip/triple toe loop combination in her long program, as well as a double axel/triple toe combination—which would be placed in the second half of her program, thereby earning a bonus, as the scoring system offered a point incentive to encourage skaters not to frontload their jumps in the first half of the program. She would also do an Ina Bauer as an entrance into this combination. Seven triples were planned total.

It was quite an extraordinary jump layout. This program layout would be competitive even at the senior level, before even factoring in Yu-Na’s artistic abilities. The question was, would she be able to complete them? It was one thing to do difficult combinations in practice, but another thing entirely to do them in the heat of competition. Tom Dickson also reworked the original choreography of this program during the summer of 2005, while Kim Se-Yol continued to work on the choreography with Yu-Na throughout the season.

Her exhibition music was also from Moulin Rouge, set to Nicole Kidman’s version of the song “One Day I’ll Fly Away” and choreographed by herself and her coach, Kim Se-Yeol.

Yu-Na was starting only her second season internationally, still as a junior, still Korea’s one and only hope for the future of figure skating, bearing all the expectation of bringing home medals alone. It had already been many years of hard work already, and there were surely many more years of hard work to come. Perhaps Yu-Na’s selection of this music gave a glimpse into a wish: that one day, after these years of hard work and the stress and pressure of competition, she would be able to “leave all this to yesterday,” as Kidman sang in the film…and skate away.

But first, the challenge of her second junior season awaited.

Yu-Na debuted her new short program on August 18 at a domestic qualifier for the JGP in Dong-Cheon. From the opening notes, it was evident that Yu-Na had already developed a strong connection with this music. As the intensity increased, so did her dramatic poses, as she moved her arms, body, and tilted her head effortlessly to the beats. And she performed the Ina Bauer into the double axel without a hitch.

When performing her long program, still wearing the lavender costume from the previous season, it was clear that Yu-Na was very comfortable with the music, and upgrading the jump combinations hadn’t slowed her down a bit. She successfully landed both her triple flip/triple toe combination and the double axel/triple toe combination out of the Ina Bauer. Despite a few bobbles elsewhere, it was overall a clean performance and a good sign for the coming season. Afterwards, Yu-Na and her coach, Kim Se-Yol, kept working on the choreography of Roxanne in preparation for its ISU debut two weeks later.

Qualifier SP

Qualifier LP

Yu-Na’s first competition on the Junior Grand Prix took her to Bratislava, Slovakia, the first week of September. She performed her tango short program with great success, receiving positive marks on every element and maximizing the levels of her spins, spiral sequence, and footwork. Her score for the season was more than 7 points higher than her personal best short program score from the previous season.

While the scoring system was always evolving and the value of certain elements would change from year to year, making it sometimes difficult to compare performances and total scores across seasons, it was still an encouraging start. Since her PCS had gone up, it seemed to be a sign that the choreography, interpretation, and expression in her new short program was working. Perhaps her dramatic new costume with long purple gloves helped give her a more mature look as well, quite a contrast with the delicate look she had presented in her previous short program.

During the long program, Yu-Na successfully debuted her triple flip/triple toe loop combination, getting positive +1 GOE for it. This was rather unusual, since judges tended to be fairly stingy in giving positive GOE for triple/triple combinations, which not only were not attempted too often, were typically not done too well. She cleanly landed a 3-jump combination and double axel/triple toe loop combination, as well as the triple loop and triple salchow. Her only errors included a step out when landing her final triple lutz, and skating a little too closely to the boards during her spiral sequence. Yu-Na excelled in speed and ice coverage, and seemed to attempt to use every bit of ice available during her performances. Sometimes she seemed to forget there were boards surrounding the ice.

Yu-Na was rewarded with a score almost as high as her personal best, her performance at the 2005 Junior Worlds, and easily won her first gold of the season and her second ever JGP win. And this was just the beginning.

2005 JGP Slovakia Results

2005 JGP Slovakia SP

2005 JGP Slovakia LP

Yu-Na traveled to Bulgaria the last week of September for her second competition. In the short program, she successfully completed all of her elements, but she also had a fall. She still easily led, and followed that up by winning the long program, similarly with a few blips. She opened with a clean triple flip/double toe loop, and then landed a clean triple lutz/triple toe combination—marking the first time she had successfully completed it in an ISU competition. However, she singled the triple loop, struggled with her double axel/triple toe, and fell on her final triple lutz. It was not the performance that she was capable of, but she was still head and shoulders above the rest of the field, and she won her second gold medal of the season. Already, her results this season were superior to last season, but could she win her first Junior Grand Prix Final title?

2005 JGP Sofia Cup Results

Yu-Na easily became the top qualifier going into the Junior Grand Prix Final, the only skater to win both of her assigned events. She had the highest combined scores from those competitions by a whopping margin of 28 points over the skater with the next highest total, Aki Sawada from Japan. That was a much larger margin than she had trailed Mao in the previous season.

Four of Japan’s talented juniors had qualified for this year’s JGPF. Yu-Na would once again be facing off against an Asada from Japan. But this time, it would be Mai Asada, older sister to Mao. With the existing rules, Mao, like Yu-Na, was not old enough to skate at the upcoming Olympics or the senior World Championships. For Mao, having gone undefeated the previous year as a junior and having a weapon that no other ladies skater had—a triple axel—the benefits of competing on the Senior Grand Prix outweighed the risks. She was facing off against much more experienced skaters who would be competing at the Olympics. Yu-Na would not compete against Mao head to head until the 2006 Junior Worlds, where Mao would be defending her title.

JGPF Qualifying

The JGPF took place in Ostrava, the Czech Republic, during the last week of November. The competition was simply a dream come true for Yu-Na. Her short program performance was smooth and elegant. She was slightly off balance in her final combination spin, but there was nothing else that the judges could find fault with, and she easily went into first.

All of Yu-Na’s scores in the short program this season were higher than her scores in the short program last year. Perhaps it was a testament to Yu-Na’s maturing artistic ability, or the daring choreography, or both. Whatever it was, “Roxanne” was a clear success.

Washing away the bad memories of her performance at the last JGPF, Yu-Na, with a new dress, had her most perfect performance of her long program to date. She landed all seven triples, including the triple loop, and all of her intended combinations. For the second time in her career, she did not receive a single negative GOE on any element in the long program, though she did receive a deduction for finishing after the music ended. Yu-Na earned nearly 6 points in GOE, which meant that the judges were rewarding her for the clean execution of all her elements, the difficult entry into her double axel/triple toe loop combination, and the superior technique of her triple flip/triple toe combination. It was one thing to plan a harder program, another to actually succeed at it, and even then there was no guarantee that the judges would reward it. But they did.

That many points in GOE was worth as much as a triple lutz jump, so it was almost like Yu-Na had completed 8 jumping passes over her competitors to get that many points, even when she had completed 7 as they did. In comparison, the second place finisher, Aki Sawada, actually lost points when factoring in her GOE, as mistakes cost her points that outweighed the positive points she received for other elements.

Yu-Na easily won the JGPF title, her first and Korea’s first, running away from the field. And she did it with style, with a new personal best total score that was 25 points higher than her previous personal best. She was simply ecstatic in the Kiss & Cry area with her coach, Kim Se-Yol. The difference between this year’s JGPF and last year’s was remarkable. Yu-Na had not skated to her potential at the previous JGPF—far from it, in fact, with her worst long performance of that season, while here she had the satisfaction of skating perfectly.

Though her last coach had been good for Yu-Na in terms of technique, she was known to be rather strict in training with Yu-Na. Kim Se-Yol had a far more kind and considerate manner in training Yu-Na, and her increased happiness seemed to help her on the ice, both in allowing her to explore a new range of emotions artistically and in skating to her ability.

2005 JGPF Results

2005 JGPF SP

2005 JGPF LP

Youtube

Early in January, Yu-Na competed at the 2006 Korean Nationals, at a rink where the hockey paint lines were visible, with a small number of people watching. It did not have the atmosphere or the prestige of a national championship taking place in the United States, but it was not surprising given the current state of figure skating in Korea.

But while it lacked in excitement and tension, it did not lack in quality skating. It didn’t seem to matter to Yu-Na that there were far fewer people at this competition than at the 2005 Junior Worlds, and that Yu-Na could probably skip half her jumping passes and still skate away with her fourth national title.

At this place and time, she lost herself in the music and her performances in both the short program and the long program. It was pure figure skating, with each of Yu-Na’s elements melting into the next with effortless flow and flawless execution. These were the performances of someone who skated for the sake of skating. Yu-Na wasn’t skating for the judges who would give her scores at a competition that the world wasn’t watching, or for public adoration that was not forthcoming. She was simply skating because she was born to be a figure skater.

For all of the ease that Yu-Na performed her programs, it didn’t lack in technical difficulty. In fact, the performances given by Yu-Na were comparable to that of any skater at any national championship around the world, with seven triples in the long program, including a triple/triple, 3-jump combination, and a triple loop done so easily that one would never know it was a tricky jump for her. However, Yu-Na had overlooked one minor thing in changing her usual jump layout for this performance, and she ended up repeating the triple lutz twice without it being in combination either time. However, it did not make a difference at this competition.

After she finished her long program and taking her bows, Yu-Na skated around the rink and picked up the few bouquets of flowers and gifts that had been thrown onto the ice for her. In most senior competitions elsewhere, young aspiring skaters would have the honor of picking up such items for the competitor leaving the ice. The best performances by well-known skaters would receive a shower of gifts, sometimes too many for the skater to carry by hand.

But that was not happening here, in Korea. Not yet, anyway. Korea’s four-time national champion did it all herself.

2006 Nationals SP

2006 Nationals LP

While Yu-Na had won everything on the Junior Grand Prix, Mao Asada had picked up one silver medal and one gold medal on the senior Grand Prix circuit. One by one, she had defeated some of the strongest contenders for the Olympics, including America’s Sasha Cohen and fellow Japanese skater Shizuka Arakawa. Defying expectations, she had qualified for the Grand Prix Final.

After the senior Grand Prix Final took place in Japan, where Mao triumphed over Russia’s Irina Slutskaya, the 2005 reigning world champion, rumblings slowly began to grow in the media around the world about a skater who was able to beat the favorites going into Torino, but was unable to compete due to the age limit.

The age rule had been known for years, and consequently both Mao and Yu-Na had set their sights on the 2010 Olympics. However, now that the 2006 Olympics were so close, and Mao had unexpectedly exceeded expectations with her success, the rule change began to be discussed again publicly. The argument was that Mao’s results on the senior grand prix proved she belonged there, so she either deserved special permission to compete on the Olympics as well, or the age rule should be relaxed in general.

Nary a whisper was spoken in the media about Yu-Na. Figure skating over the years had received less and less coverage. Many casual fans only followed skating at the Olympics, and even fewer paid attention to the juniors, so Yu-Na’s name was still unknown. She would undoubtedly have been Korea’s representative to the Olympics if Korea had a spot, and if she was age eligible.

However, Korea had never expected, nor asked for, special permission for Yu-Na, even though she was the first skater to come out of Korea at this level. All along, they expected that Yu-Na’s time would come in 2010. They had not sent Yu-Na to a qualifying event for the 2006 Olympics, and thus even if the age rule was suddenly relaxed, South Korea would not have had a representative spot to even give to Yu-Na. As some figure skating followers observed, it would be unfair to change the age restriction rules this late in the season to benefit one skater, when it could not benefit skaters in a similar situation like Yu-Na.

Japan’s situation was the exact opposite of Korea’s. It had perhaps the deepest field of contenders than any other country, including the USA and Russia. They had any number of eligible skaters to send, each of whom had, on paper, the ability to challenge for the podium, greatly reducing the need for Japan to have Mao on the team. Nor did Japan seem to have the desire to publicly challenge the ISU. Throughout the controversy, the Japan Skating Federation remained quiet as public awareness of the issue rose and fell, and that sealed Mao’s fate. A team of veterans was sent to the 2006 Olympics in Torino: the 2004 world champion, Shizuka Arakawa, their 2005 National champion and former world medalist, Fumie Suguri, and 2004 junior world champion Miki Ando.

Mao, like Yu-Na, would be watching the Olympics at home.

At the 2006 Olympics, the favorites going in were undoubtedly the previous year’s medalists, Irina Slutskaya, Sasha Cohen, and Carolina Kostner. Russia had swept every discipline at those Olympic games, and was waiting for Irina, its two-time world champion, to claim its first gold medal ever in the ladies event. The USA, having won two consecutive gold medals in 1998 and 2002, wanted Sasha, its newly crowned national champion, to win its third. Carolina would be skating in her home country.

Shizuka Arakawa, on the other hand, came in to the games quietly, with less hype, because after winning the world title in 2004, she had had an off year, finishing ninth at the 2005 worlds. However, she seemed to have regained her prior form, and had even brought back the long program that had won her the world title.

Once the competition began, one by one, the favorites failed to deliver. Kostner eliminated herself from contention in the short program. Sasha, leader after the short and skating before Irina and Shizuka in the long program, fell on her very first jumping pass, and botched the second one as well. She pulled herself together after that, but it was clear that it would not take very much to pass her for the gold.

Shizuka went on to perform the only clean skate from a medalist, landing five triples, and memorably performing an Ina Bauer with a stunning layback position. Her one glaring error was in doubling a triple loop. While she had been practicing triple/triple combinations with ease all week in practice, in the end, Shizuka did not attempt any. She did not need to after Sasha’s disastrous performance, and when Irina fell as well, that sealed the deal. Shizuka Arakawa became Japan’s first Olympic gold medalist in ladies figure skating, winning their one and only medal of the 2006 Olympics games.

Though it was a historic moment for Japan, the competition as a whole seemed to be a step backwards for the sport. It was difficult to remember the last time there had not been a single ladies medalist without a clean triple/triple combination or sequence. Neither Shizuka nor Irina attempted one; and Sasha Cohen received negative GOE for her triple+triple sequence.

Shizuka’s win was perhaps without the dazzle of the Olympic gold medal-winning performances of the previous two Olympics, but it had her own elegance and assuredness. She did what she needed to do. Luckily for Shizuka, she had not carried the weight of the world on her shoulders, the way Midori Ito had in 1992. Midori Ito, in fact, was there in Torino leading the cheering section for Shizuka in the stands.

Sasha received the silver medal, which she herself referred to as “a gift,” and Irina finished a long and illustrious career by claiming her second Olympic medal, a bronze. Americans Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, in their Olympic debuts, finished sixth and seventh, respectively. They most likely didn’t wonder how the two skaters who had beaten them at the 2005 junior worlds would have done, but there were a few people who did.

The world knew Mao’s name already, but they would never know how she would have done in Torino. They would only see her at the 2006 Junior Worlds, where she would compete against Yu-Na for the first time in a year. The two best young skaters who hadn’t been allowed to be at the Olympics would now meet again.

The 2006 Junior Worlds took place the first week of March in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Yu-Na, the newly crowned JGPF champion, was nearing the end of her dream season, lacking only a world championship to give it the perfect ending. She had all the motivation that she needed. After putting herself in a hole with the SP at the last world’s championships, she knew better than to do so again, and after having skated so perfectly at the JGPF, she knew what she was capable of.

However, prior to arriving, Yu-Na had some boot problems and a bit of pain in one ankle, which dampened her own expectations for winning. She felt much more comfortable with her boots once she was in Slovenia practicing, but the outlook was uncertain given the competition.

Mao Asada, the newly crowned senior Grand Prix Final champion, was coming back to the junior level to defend her title, the first time she would have to do so. But it was an inevitable question that after having beaten the best skaters in the world on the Grand Prix, and still not being allowed to take part in the Olympics or senior worlds, that competing at Junior Worlds would perhaps be a letdown in comparison.

But it was simply unthinkable that Mao, having beaten Sasha Cohen, Irina Slutskaya, and Shizuka Arakawa, would have a difficult time defending her title, or defeating Yu-Na, a skater that she had handily defeated their first year as a junior together. The fact that Yu-Na had been far from perfect in both segments of those competitions was perhaps overlooked in the margin of victory. While there was plenty of evidence to believe that the gap between them had closed since then, Yu-Na would need to win her first junior world championships if she wanted anyone, including herself, to believe it.

Yu-Na skated in Qualifying Group A, and this time, the results of Qualifying were quite the opposite of the previous year. Last season’s qualifying program performance had been perfect, yet had gone unrewarded. This time, she fell on the triple loop, and yet her score was higher, with increases in both the PCS and the TES, thanks to her added difficult jump combinations. After factoring in the lost GOE for the fall, the margin between her and Mao was, this time, much smaller than it had been last time.

Mao had avoided falls but had a major deduction on her triple axel. Still, she led all qualifiers with the highest scores.

Just as in that year’s JGPF, Yu-Na proved that she was a stronger and better competitor and skater than she had been at the previous Junior World championships. She gave a superb performance to Roxanne, nailing her triple flip/double toe combination, a beautiful triple lutz out of footwork, and the double axel out of the Ina Bauer. Her spins, spiral sequence, and footwork were all done smoothly and perfectly to the music. After finishing, Yu-Na allowed herself a tiny nod of satisfaction before taking her bows and smiling at the appreciative audience.

Nancy Kerrigan, 1994 Olympic silver medalist, complimented Yu-Na not only on her jumps, but on her maturity, flair, facial expressions, and simply being a well-rounded package. Yu-Na’s confidence and happiness on the ice was clear, and she was rewarded with high points for all of her elements, and a new international personal best for her, breaking 60 for the first time. Yu-Na herself was delighted with her scores. She easily went into first, with Mao next to skate.

Mao, for the first time in an ISU championship, attempted a triple axel/double loop combination in her short program, which she had never done that season when skating on the senior Grand Prix. She rotated the triple axel but the landing was shaky, and she singled the loop after. She received very little GOE from the judges for her triple lutz due to the flutz, and received another slight deduction for a poorly done sit spin. The multiple errors added up, and she seemed to lack the spark that she had a year ago and on the GP.

While the ISU immediately noted Mao’s historic achievement of landing the triple axel, it was a risky bet that did not pay off. It was also unnecessary, because Mao had not needed a triple axel in the short program to win the senior Grand Prix final. Now at Junior Worlds, Mao found herself behind Yu-Na for the first time. Yu-Na’s lead over Mao was mainly through the technical components, but in a big change from before, Yu-Na had gotten slightly higher PCS than Mao, and now Yu-Na had a four point lead going into the long program.

But anything could happen in the free program. If they were to repeat their performances from Qualifying, then their placements would be the same as the previous year’s worlds.

Yu-Na’s goals in the free program were to get the highest levels for her spins, develop her facial expressions throughout, and land that key opening triple flip/triple toe combination.

Mao’s goal was to skate clean, and she mentioned that if she felt good, she might attempt a second triple axel in addition to the one she already had planned. The one triple axel in the short program had been surprising, and the potential for two more in the long program was even more so. Jyrki Pirkkalainen, in a report for USFSA, noted in response, “And she may need them as well.”

Still, Mao’s hopes for a second world junior championship title were still alive, and while Yu-Na was the leader, nothing was assured.

This was Yu-Na’s last chance to win a world championship as a junior, and given the opportunity, she delivered. Skating before Mao, she concentrated on just her own performance and what she had to do.

From the moment Yu-Na took the ice for her long program and the notes of “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” began, she was “on.” She opened with a perfect triple flip/triple toeloop combination that garnered the highest GOE from the judges of any element. She followed it up with an equally lovely triple lutz. One by one, she went through her spins, spiral sequence, and footwork flawlessly. Her triple loop hadn’t felt solid from the warm-up, so she substituted a double axel, but she landed her planned six triples. She had a slightly squeaky landing after doing her double axel/triple toe combination from the Ina Bauer and a step-out on the final jump in her triple lutz/double toe/double loop combination, but was overall fast, confident, and polished.

Whereas in the short program Yu-Na had shown off her flair, here Kerrigan called her elegant, with a maturity beyond her years. One of Yu-Na’s key strengths was that her two programs showed different sides of herself, and her artistic range was already far beyond that of some senior figure skaters.

In the Kiss & Cry, Yu-Na clutched a small Korean flag, smiling and looking a bit nervous as she waited for her scores. But she didn’t need to worry. The judges rewarded her with a new personal best score for the long program, and she had a new personal best total as well, much to her delight. She was the leader by a comfortable margin.

Mao skated right after Yu-Na, as she did in the short program. However, just as the opening triple axel combination in the short had caused problems for her, the opening triple axel in the long caused problems here as well. She popped her triple axel, the first such error for her on the triple axel that season. She then lost steam towards the end of her program, singling the loop in her intended triple flip/double loop combination, and singling the final triple lutz. Singling out was an error that was even more costly than a fall, though visually, a fall was a more serious error. The points lost added up, and Mao placed second by a margin that was slightly larger than the one that separated them the previous year.

Yu-Na won her first world junior championship title with the highest scores in every category, and it was the first major win for South Korea as well. All of a sudden, Korea’s hopes for a contender at the next Olympic games were starting to look a little more realistic. The best of Korea could indeed compete with one of the best in the world—and win.

Yu-Na and Mao were joined by third place finisher American Christine Zukowski. Commentator Lou Tilley remarked that he thought it would be fun to watch Yu-Na and Mao’s rivalry for years to come. And after watching them pose for pictures, Yu-Na in the center, Mao to the viewer’s left, he closed by saying, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in Vancouver in a similar pose.”

Elsewhere at the Junior World Championships, Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the title in ice dancing. No one would realize until four years later that the 2006 Junior World Championships would be an uncanny predictor for two of the four eventual champions at the Vancouver Olympics.

In the exhibition, Yu-Na skated to Nicole Kidman’s “One Day I’ll Fly Away.” When Yu-Na picked the song for her exhibition from Moulin Rouge, it is not likely that she knew she would be skating to it as world junior champion. Even coming into the competition undefeated, she was not completely confident that she would be able to win when last year’s champion seemed stronger than ever. But it had happened.

Now that the dream of the world junior championships had come true, Yu-Na could look towards the dream of another world championship—on the senior level. The dreaming hadn’t ended for Yu-Na.

2006 Junior Worlds Results

2006 Junior Worlds SP

2006 Junior Worlds LP

2006 Junior Worlds EX

2006 Junior Worlds Encore

Less than two weeks later, American Kimmie Meissner, in an upset, won the senior world championships over heavy favorite and fellow American Sasha Cohen, the Olympic silver medalist. The other Olympic medalists had opted out of the competition. Whether it was an emotional letdown from the Olympics or an injury or overconfidence, Sasha was left with a bronze medal, and she would end her skating career without a world title. Kimmie had gone 0 and 2 against Mao and Yu-Na as a junior, never winning the junior world championships title in two chances, but now she had a prize that was the second most valuable prize in figure skating.

The coming year, with Kimmie the reigning world champion, Yu-Na the reigning world junior champion, and Mao the reigning Grand Prix Final champion, would surely be interesting.

This season, from beginning to end, was simply a perfect one for Yu-Na. She ended undefeated, with her first JGPF and world junior championship titles. And they were performances she could be proud of, that could have competed against the best of the world. Would they have been good enough to medal at the Olympics?

There is no telling what would have happened at the Olympics if Yu-Na, or Mao, had been there. But three of the skaters who had placed behind them at the 2005 junior world championships, Emily Hughes, Kimmie Meissner, and Elene Gedevanishvili, had made it into the final group for the long program. Elene, like Yu-Na, came from a country with no figure skating history, and had been the first skater to win a medal on the JGP for Georgia. So it is possible that with her strong triple flip/triple toeloop combination, a combination that was rarely seen at that Olympics, Yu-Na might have had a chance.

But only a slight one, because reputation played too large a part in scoring, and Yu-Na would likely never have been close enough to the leaders after the short program to grab a medal. In addition, the Olympic rings at the center of the ice had been known to cause great skaters to falter and lesser known ones to rise to the occasion. You could never guess how a skater would do on Olympic ice until they actually went out there and did it.

Yu-Na’s win at junior worlds was dismissed by some as a result of Mao suffering a letdown from not having competed at the Olympics and seeing skaters she had beaten medal. But those who did so ignored the fact that Yu-Na had taken extraordinary steps forward both technically and artistically this season, and she was no longer the same skater who had settled for silver three times the last season, due to her own mistakes.

Yu-Na happily ended her second and last season as a junior, undefeated, with promising dreams of the future. As Korea’s first junior world champion, she would carry that as momentum into the next season, her first as a senior. Yu-Na was already aware that seniors would be a different game both technically and artistically. Her plans included training overseas, and while training the triple axel was still on the table, she did not think it was required to succeed. Only time would tell if she was right.


Written by jaylee

Thanks: legend, Magpie, smittenbyYuna, brianjyw, Common

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