Yuna may sit out whole season
Korean figure skating icon Kim Yu-na said she has not decided whether to compete at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships next year.
After finishing her ice show, Samsung Galaxy-Hauzen All That Skate Summer 2011, at the Olympic Gymnasium in southern Seoul on Monday, Kim told reporters that she has not made up her mind on whether to participate at the Worlds, which start in March in Nice, France.
“Nothing is confirmed,” Kim said.
If she decides not to take part, Kim will miss almost a year of competitive skating as she is already set to skip the 2011-2012 ISU Grand Prix series from October to December.
After taking the silver medal at this year’s World Championships in April, the 20-year-old announced that she would not feature in the Grand Prix series because she needs to focus on her role as an honorary ambassador for the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic bidding committee.
Kim also missed the Grand Prix last season. After clinching the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, she decided not to participate at the Grand Prix citing a need for rest, but she did make it to this year’s Worlds in Moscow.
When asked about her future plans, Kim said she will go to the United States in a few weeks to train.
Figure skating pundits say this would give Kim enough time to develop a new program for the Worlds. For this year’s event, she needed only several months of preparation after starting in October and still managed to finish with a silver medal.
Kim, the 2009 world champion, has fallen short against Japanese figure skaters in the last two editions of the World Championships. In 2010, she finished second behind Mao Asada, while this year, she came runner up again after Miki Ando earned 1.29 points more to claim the gold with 195.79 points.
Kim said her best memory of this year was helping the alpine town of Pyeongchang win its bid to secure the Winter Games.
“Last year, I had many special moments and good results,” she said. “But if I had to pick one, it would be the moment when Pyeongchang won the Olympic bid.”
Kim was one of eight representatives who made the final presentation to International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in Durban, South Africa, last month.
“I got very tired, but many people helped me to get back on my feet,” said Kim, who reportedly came down with mild flu symptoms on the flight home and was said to be exhausted. “Sometimes I felt fatigued, but I also felt proud of what we’d accomplished.”
Kim will also serve as the global honorary ambassador for the Pyeongchang Special Olympic Winter Games, which will be held in 2013. She will be officially appointed tomorrow by the event’s organizing committee and Special Olympics International (SOI).
The biannual event for children and adults with intellectual disabilities will be held from Jan. 26 to Feb. 6 in Pyeongchang next year. Kim will join other global ambassadors like swimming star Michael Phelps and retired NBA star Yao Ming to promote the event.
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