Kim Yu-na, 22-year-old South Korean figure skater, has won the NRW Trophy 2012 held on December 9 in Dortmund, Germany, scoring total 201.61 points. Kim’s total score, 72.27 points in the short program and 129.34 points in free skating, was the highest score by a female figure skater in this season. The second place went to Russian figure skater Makarova, with 159.01 points in total that included 99.46 points in free skating and 59.55 in the short program.

Before Kim’s performance on Sunday, Japanese figure skater Mao Asada had the best score in this season with a total of 196.80 points, winning the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Fix in Sochi, Russia, on Saturday.

Kim, the 2010 Olympic gold medalist, also secured the required technical scores to qualify for the 2013 World Figure Skating Championships to be held in the Canadian city of London in Ontario from March 10-17.

Since Kim was sitting out the entire 2011-12 season to mull over her career options, her participation in the NRW Trophy 2012 was the first competitive skating since the 2011 world championships. Kim announced in July that she would return to competitive skating and also showed intentions of wanting to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

On December 9, Kim showed up with people’s applause and started her performance to a compilation of songs from the popular musical “Les Miserables.” She finished a clean triple lutz-triple toe loop combination and then a triple flip and followed up with flawless spins and step sequences.

However, it was not a flawless performance. Midway through the program, Kim under-rotated her double axel and later fell on the second jump of a triple-double combination, losing 2.10 points.

At the end of program, it seemed that Kim was suffering from a minor stamina problem derived from her long term hibernation as a professional figure skater. However, she did not lose her pace, allowing herself to get over 200 points.

Kim Yu-na, who was born in September 5, 1990 in South Korea, started her career as a figure skater in 1996. She became a member of Korea’s national team in 2003 when she was only 14 years old.

Kim holds three world records with 78.50 points in the short program, 150.06 points in free skating and 228.56 points in total score. All three marks were set at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. In the 2009 world champion, Kim upheld a professional trait of never finishing off the podium in her senior career, which began in 2006.

Image Courtesy : Queen Yuna

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About the author

Tae-jun Kang
Tae-jun Kang graduated from Korea University with a business degree as well as a minor in Russian language and literature. He had worked as a riot police in Korea for 2 years before he started his degree. This gave him an opportunity to focus on the social issues which he overlooked before, and spiked his interest in the field of journalism. In 2011, he worked for Voice of America Seoul News Center for nine months as an intern, building his goal to become an international journalist. You can reach him by sending an email to taejun.kang@toonarimedia.com