The Story of Kim Yuna : 2010-2011 Season

Since 1992, no Olympic champion had continued to compete in the season after their Olympic victory except for American Sarah Hughes, who competed at 2003 US Nationals and Worlds (which were taking place in the United States of America). In fact, only Kristi Yamaguchi and Yu-Na Kim had even competed at the Worlds right after the Olympics. Every other Olympic champion had skipped this competition.

By indicating she would compete at the 2011 Worlds in Tokyo, Japan, site of where Yu-Na had made a stunning worlds debut in 2007 with “Tango de Roxanne,” Yu-Na was now officially beginning her own unique path as an Olympic champion.

For the Grand Prix, Yu-Na had been assigned to Cup of China and Cup of Russia, however, it had been understood at the time when her name had been submitted for selection by the Korean Skating Union that she was still deciding what she would do the next season. In July, when she arrived in South Korea for her second ice show, All That Skate Summer, she announced she would not participate in the Grand Prix, but would compete at the World Championships in Tokyo in 2011. It would be her first and only competition of the season. It was not unlike what Michelle Kwan opted to do after the 1998 Olympics, in which she skipped the Grand Prix and 1999 Worlds was her only ISU competition of the season.

In deciding to continue to keep her amateur career alive, Yu-Na stated that her goals were to work on her artistry and show the audience a new side of herself, noting that she hoped to skate more freely since she wouldn't be too concerned with the result since she had won everything already. There simply wasn't anything left for her to win. She had won every title available, including the Olympics, Worlds, Grand Prix Final, Four Continents, numerous Grand Prix titles, and her own country's senior nationals four times. For any skater this would have been amazing, especially for one who came from a country where no skater had accomplished even one win on the ISU level, but it now left her in an odd situation. As the Olympic champion who had shattered records left and right, people would continue to expect her to win. But as a skater who had won everything, was the motivation to win something again as strong as the motivation to win things for the first time? Most modern ladies Olympic champions chose never to test themselves in the competitive arena again. That Yu-Na was promising to was a testament to her competitive will. But it would not be an easy journey to 2011 Worlds.

On the Grand Prix, the most successful skaters ended up being veterans who had been around for more than one Olympic quad: Miki Ando, Alissa Czisny, Kiira Korpi, and Carolina Kostner, who each had their best Grand Prix results in years. Ando picked up two Grand Prix golds, Korpi one, and Czisny and Kostner picked up one gold and a bronze a piece. Only one newcomer broke through to the top of podium, and that was Japan's Kanako Murakami, the reigning junior world champion, who like Czisny and Kostner, medaled at her first event and won the other.

The Grand Prix Final, which for five years in a row had been won by either Yu-Na or Mao Asada, this year was won by Alissa Czisny in the biggest international victory of her career. Asada, the reigning World Champion, had not qualified for the Grand Prix Final for the second year in a row, after a decision to rework her jumps with her new coach, Nobuo Sato, led to the worst Grand Prix results of her career.

The 2011 European Championships again continued the theme of comebacks, with another veteran, Sarah Meier, astonishingly winning gold in front of a home crowd in Switzerland after missing the whole season due to injury. Meier had been on the podium with Yu-Na at the 2006 Grand Prix Final but had never quite had the same level of success since that season, and winning Europeans was the biggest achievement of her career. Meier, who had climbed to the highest step she thought was possible, decided to end her career on this high note, and retired.

2011 Four Continents saw Miki Ando, who had dethroned Mao Asada at Japanese Nationals, win the championship for the first time. Aside from a fifth place finish at the Grand Prix Final, Ando had won every other competition she had entered and would be going into Worlds with a great deal of momentum, with the advantage that Worlds would be in her country of Japan. Asada finished second for her first international medal of the season, and Mirai Nagasu finished third winning her first ISU Championship medal of her career. Nagasu had finished ahead of the two American skaters who had beaten her at US Nationals, but Nagasu would not be going to Worlds as the Worlds team had been determined by Nationals results.

Missing from this season's successful senior ladies performances were the difficult jump combinations that had been shown in the past by previous top senior ladies. Murakami and Korpi were the only skater to win an ISU event with a triple/triple combination, and it was the easiest, a triple toeloop/triple toeloop combination; Ando attempted the triple lutz/triple loop but wasn't able to succeed; Czisny did not attempt a triple/triple, and Kostner, coming off an injury, did not attempt it on the Grand Prix. While the new rules, installed after the 2010 Olympic season, alleviated the penalty for underrotated jumps, and men were attempting more quads than ever, in the ladies the most successful ladies were the ones omitting difficult jump combinations. It remained to be seen whether Yu-Na could reverse that trend at Worlds.

Short Program

Long Program

Medal Ceremony

Gala