"I can't say anything right now. I'm really excited. It will be very good to compete in my own country."That quote yesterday from Kim Yu-Na on PyeongChang's successful Olympic bid is now sending shockwaves through the figure skating community.
Did "The Queen" just commit herself through two more Olympics for the chance to compete at home? You must admit...it's tempting, and certainly not unheard of.
2006 Olympic Champ Evgeny Plushenko is extending his career for another go on home soil. In 2006, Fusar-Poli and Margalio and Silvia Fontana did the same. Todd Eldredge in 2002...it's a familiar story.
So does Kim Yu-Na have staying power?
I think yes. When the Olympics roll around in 2018 she'll be 27 years old. Sure, she'd certainly be one of the most "seasoned" skaters on the ice but with age comes experience. And while 27 isn't exactly the norm, it's certainly not unheard of. Maria Butyrskaya won a World Championship at 26. Irina Slutskaya was an Olympic Medalist at 27.
In short...it's doable.
I think she has to take a measured approach to skating and training. I don't think she can press full steam ahead for the next seven years, she'd kill herself. She has to know when to take it easy and know when to train hard. I believe we may be seeing the early beginning's of this with her limited competition schedule last season and a similar plan for next season.
I think Kim Yu-Na has an opportunity here. I don't think figure skating has had an icon like Kim since Michelle Kwan and she can mold the next, well...decade, into the Kim era. This could be big.
What are your thoughts? Does she have staying power?
4 comments:
She may have said that while she was still in bit of an "after shock" from hearing the announcement. In an interview she did few hours later, she said even Sochi was a "maybe" and too early to tell...
I would love to see her compete though! I definitely think it's doable, although I can definitely understand why the thought would be so overwhelming for her.
It may depend, too, on whether the pressure of being a star just gets to be too much. She seems to be under so much pressure from her home country, both before and after the Olympics.
It is one of those things that sometimes its good to back out early in a sense, going out with a bang sort of thing, so its whether she can keep up the amazing-ness she has currently, but she has all of the figure skating community behind her, and with the support and right mindset I think she can do it!
J
Kwan was at the 1994 (alternate), 1998, 2002, and the 2006 Olypics (withdrew injury) so why couldn't Kim Ya-Na? I don't think it's a question of skill or even age, but a question of logevity in the injury department.
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