Queen Kim Yuna gets the gold

I first heard Kim Yu-Na's name during my first week in Korea. My English camp students were required to report about a famous Korean person, and one of my students picked Kim Yu-Na. I actually remember asking, "Who is Kim Yu-Na?"

Yesterday, as I watched an online clip of Kim Yu-Na performing her free style program, I honestly thought to myself, "That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." I remember being struck with a similar feeling when I watched a group of older dancers perform a lyrical routine for the finale at one of my dance recitals years ago. At the time, I couldn't imagine anything in all creation being more graceful and stunning than dance.

Kim Yuna was the word on the street all day long yesterday. Kim Yuna and her gold medal and new world record score of 228.56 for women's figure skating at the Olympics...though "Kim" and "Yuna" were the only two words I could understand on the street. I'm not kidding. I heard her name at least ten times on the bus last night as I rode downtown for Bible study. I did a Kim Yuna impression in the break room much to the amusement of my coworker, SuJung. We talked about Kim Yuna in my classes and had engaging discussions about the difficulty of figure skating versus speed skating.

One of my American friends, who has been in Korea for years, kind of chuckles at how proud Koreans are of her because, she says, Kim Yuna trained in Canada. Then again, I heard about an American woman in the ice dancing competition, who was representing Georgia, despite having never been to the country and barely completing citizenship requirements with enough time to compete. The lines of nationalism at the Olympics are being blurred everyday as our world gets smaller. If you ask me, Koreans have plenty to be proud of. She is Korean. And she's a wonderful artist and athlete.

In the Korea Times:

"With the gold medal, Kim became the first female skater ever to achieve the sport's grand slam - winning the titles from the World Grand Prix Final, Four Continents Championships, World Championships and Winter Olympics ."

What always shocks me about the Olympics is how young the athletes often are! Kim Yuna is 19 years old.

I have to confess I don't even know for sure how the US is doing. I can't get a feed from NBC in Korea, so I have to download each event individually, which I know isn't super good for my hard drive. And I haven't taken much time to read the headlines until right now. O ok...8 golds, 13 silvers and 13 bronze.

I do know that one of my students used the words "Apolo Ohno" and "loser" in the same sentence the other day. Christi said Koreans detest Ohno because he supposedly caused a Korean skater to get disqualified during the Salt Lake City Olympics and unrightfully brought home the gold medal. (Interesting tidbit, I suppose.) According to FOX, he's the most rivaled athlete in South Korea. Having witnessed Korean national pride first hand, this doesn't surprise me. Plus, Ohno is half-Japanese. It only takes about ten minutes worth of Japan-related conversation with a Korean over the age of 20 to figure out how they feel about Japan.

Anyway, to be honest, I don't even know the names of our major athletes this year. I know of Apolo Ohno as well as Meryl Davis and Charlie White in the ice dancing championships. I know of Kim Yuna, Lee Jung Soo and Mo Tae Bum. And when I saw Kim Yuna choke up after a perfect performance on Friday, I felt really happy for her!