Kim Yuna Biography

Kim Yuna was born on the 5th of September 1990 in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, South Korea. She started figure skating at the early age of 5 years old.

While Yuna was training in Korea, all ice rinks were used for recreational purposes making it difficult for Yuna to find times to train. She would come to the rink between the hours 7pm-12pm and was often too tired to go to school the next day.  Yuna possessed great potential early in her career by winning multiple national competitions. She soon started to attract attention nationally and became the youngest Korean skater to land the 5 different triple jumps at eleven years old. 

Kim Yuna became a member of the Korean national team as soon as she started middle school. She performed beautifully at all competitions she joined during 2004 to 2006, she won numerous ISU (Internation Skating Union) Junior Grand Prix competitions and the 2006 Junior World Figure Skating Championships. Kim Yuna claimed two gold medals simultaniously during the 2006-2007 season and 2007-2008 Grand Prix Finals. 

Kim Yuna at age 15 in 2005

Yuna's mother Park Mee-hee dedicated all her time to Yuna, leaving her husband and Yuna's older sister (Kim Aera) in Korea. Yuna moved to Toronto and started training with Brian Orser, an eight time national world champion and 1984 and 1988 silver Olympic medalist at the ‘Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club’ in 2007. Later on, she had struggled froman injury but managed to grasp gold medals at the Grand Prix Final, ISU Four Continents Championships and ISU World Championships in 2007 to 2009.At the 2009 ISU World Championships, Yuna beat her own world record in the short program with 76.12 points and won with a total score of 207.71 points, this was a new world record.

Yuna Kim at age 19 in 2009

In February of 2010, Kim Yuna once again broke her own world record with a total of 228.56 points, on her way to winning gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.                                                       She skated perfectly to the music of James Bond Medley and George Gershwin’s Concerto in F, winning Olympic gold at the age of 19. An overall score of 228.56 being the highest score in ladies figure skating, and is thought to be unbeatable by figure skating experts.

              

After the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Kim Yuna became famous as an international sports idol and received much recognition being in magazines, commercials for Nike, Hyundai, Samsung and other Korean advertisements. In August of 2010, the Korean-American Leadership Foundation rewarded Yuna a ‘Proud Korean Award’ noticing her input of improving Korea’s international position. Even the city of LA assigned August 7 as “Yuna Kim Day” and gave her an honorary citizenship to honour her stay at LA. 

Nike Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oojtw_vL-A0

Kim Yuna is helping society through varieties of charitable activities. In January 2010, she donated 100milion won ($1141.16CAD) to support efforts in Haiti. Later she was given the name "international UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador" and engaged in many activities such as the UN’s annual International Day of Peace Celebration. She is continuosly doing charitable acts such as giving scholarships to young figure skaters and donating prize money along with profits from her ice shows. 

In 2011 Yuna took a two year break recovering from an injury, but within a year of competing at world championships, she was back to perform at Sochi 2014 winter Olympics. Skating to Adios Nonino and Send in the Clowns Yuna gave it her all but still placed second to Adelina Sotnikova representing and skating in her home country, Russia.                                Arguments about whether Adelina rightfully won the gold medal still carries on, saying that one of the judges were Russian and biased Adelina, overscoring her long program. There was also arguement on the fact that Adelina actually had a two foot landing during her long program while Yuna did not fall once but merely had an unsteady landing on one of her jumps.

Sochi Programs

Yuna Kim short program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K23m2QUOHvY

Yuna Kim long program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgXKJvTVW9g

Adelina Sotnikova short program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fczl8W9LkyY

Adelina Sotnikova long program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fczl8W9LkyY

If Yuna had won gold at Sochi, she would have been the only woman aside from Katarina Witt to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals.

In an interview after Yuna's performance, the interviewer asked what she was feeling after she performed. Kim Yuna said that at that moment, she was really just relieved that it was all over. She said that there had been many times in her career when she had had unfair scoring. The question of what Yuna's hardest decision in her skating career was came up and Yuna said that honestly, coming to Sochi was her most difficult decision. There have been many occasions in which Yuna has sang, bur Yuna herself said she would never consider going into the music industry after retirement. She said that she was unsure of what to do after the Olympics, but just wanted to take a break and relax before sorting out what to do in the future.

Kim Yuna gives credit to all of her early coaches who encouraged her and constantly told her she had talent. Yuna said without them, she could have missed a great opportunity.

Kim Yuna is the first female figure skater to obtain a grand slam(a set of championships in the same year) under the current ISU judging system, break the world record 11 times, eight being her own. Through her whole career, she had never placed in a competition lower than third place, this is something no one has been able to achieve, this holds her place of being on of the greatest figure skaters of all time. Although Yuna did not win gold at Sochi, she will always carry the name "Queen Yuna" a nick name she has earned from her fans. Yuna retired after the Sochi Olympics at the age of 23, and is now 25 years old.