first, it's pronounced "yun-ah" kim. "yun" rhymes with fun, run, ton, gun, sun, bun, done, pun, won, one, etc. nbc announcers and all other non-koreans who have been mispronouncing her name for the past 4 years, you don't have to get all non-americans' names correct, but let's at least pronounce the olympic champion's name correctly.
i know a lot of people are upset about how the womens figure skating went down a few days ago. since i think figure skating is a waste of athleticism and actively avoid watching it, i really have no opinion on the result. but you know what? for yuna, i think it was the best possible outcome.
during these olympic games, i've been rooting for a russian speed skater named victor ahn. if you didn't know, he was born and raised in korea and even won 4 olympic medals in 2006 along with a bunch of other international events for korea. then in 2008, he suffered an injury and the korean skating federation pretty much cut all ties with him, not really helping in his recuperation. the reason for it was that b/c korea is a speed skating powerhouse, they have other skaters who can easily take ahn's spot. therefore, an injured and recuperating ahn is not needed. in 2014, ahn came back with a vengeance for russia and won 4 additional olympic medals (3 gold, 1 bronze).
as you can probably guess, ahn's story caused a ruckus in korea. even the president of korea has requested that korea's skating federation be investigated for how they handle their business. but you know what? if ahn didn't win so many medals (he won as many gold medals alone as the entire korean olympic team combined), this story probably wouldn't have been as big of a deal over there. or if the korean men didn't crap the bed so spectacularly, it wouldn't have been as big a deal either.
and that's why yuna's situation is the best case scenario, b/c koreans treat their athletes like every one of them are very easily replaceable. they were going to do it to ahn, but he was too good for that and of course, koreans are wrong in their attitude.
so back to yuna, the first article i ever read about her was back in 2010, during the vancouver games. i think even then, she was the richest female athlete. but the article quoted some korean insider who said that if yuna did not win the gold in vancouver, she would lose approximately half of all of her sponsorship deals. my reaction: WHAT THE F**K???
yuna, on her own, with very little to zero support from the korean government or the skating federation, became one of the best figure skaters the world had ever seen. i don't believe in self-made men or women, but she might be the closest thing. yuna, for her entire career, hired and paid, out of her own pocket, her coaches and staff. when i left korea in 2011, there was no figure skating rink in the country for her to train at and there weren't any plans to build one. this is AFTER yuna won a gold medal in that event. how quickly national heroes are forgotten and discarded.
but that silver medal is a game-changer. to be clear, not the medal itself, but the circumstances (alleged) that led to it.
coming into these games, yuna was expected to repeat as the champion, to become the 3rd woman to do so. i don't know about the experts, but koreans, in general, saw these games as more of a coronation than a competition. and why not? even i read that yuna was clearly the best skater in the world, having won the latest world championship with a comfortable margin. but she didn't win. and not just that, it appears as if there was foul play involved.
if yuna had won, she'd have done what was expected of her. and if i know korean people like i think i do, they would have been happy for her, then they'd turn on her for her popularity. why do i think this? around the time yuna won the gold in 2010, she had another nickname in korea. it was "dohn yuna." "dohn" rhymes with... nothing. it's not important, so let's move on. but it means money. many koreans derisively called her that b/c she had so many sponsorship deals. this is how they roll over there.
but with the silver medal and the situation that led to it, yuna is now and forever will be, a sympathetic hero. the narrative will be that the girl who single-handedly raised korea to the top of the world in figure skating was robbed of a gold medal in her very last competition. that gives her protection from all the hate that was gonna come her way eventually, if she had won the gold. how can you say something negative about the girl who should have won the gold but was robbed (allegedly)?
like i said, i don't know if she was robbed. i personally don't care. figure skating is not a real sport and i think it's stupid that it's such an important event in the olympics. it undermines the legitimacy of the whole thing a little bit. but i understand that it is popular, so... yeah. dolla, dolla, bill, y'all.
for yuna, i hope only good things will happen to her for the rest of her life. i'm sure she was and i'm also sure she will continue to be a great ambassador of korea and figure skating.
long live the queen.
