The New York Times
March 29, 2009
Kim Sets a Skating Record and Wins Her First World Title
By JULIET MACUR
LOS ANGELES — More than an hour after Kim Yu-na won the world figure skating championship Saturday, she remained on the ice here, skating laps around the arena with a South Korean flag wrapped around her body.
She stopped to sign autographs and pose for photographs with her fans, many from the large Korean community here. She doled out high-fives. But most of all, she soaked in the moment.
For the past two world championships, the best Kim could do was third place. But this time, she did not let that happen. And there was not much of a chance that it would.
For the second night in a row, Kim performed yet another elegant, seemingly effortless routine that enthralled the crowd — and the judges.
After her long program Saturday, she earned a total score of 207.71 points — the first time a female skater has broken the 200-point mark. Less than one year before the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the 18-year-old Kim dominated the world championships by more than 16 points.
“I don’t think about the points,” she said afterward, sparkling in her red rhinestone-accented dress. “Being the world champion was my dream and I did it here, so this is just amazing.”
Joannie Rochette of Canada won the silver medal, with 191.29 points. In third was Miki Ando of Japan, the 2007 world champion. She had 190.38 points.
Mao Asada, Kim’s longtime rival and the 2008 world champion, was fourth, with 188.09 points. She dropped her head when her program was done.
Asada, from Japan, had attempted two triple axels, a daring move, but she fell on the second. For her to even possibly pass Kim, she had needed to be mistake-free.
“It is very regrettable that I fell, but I didn’t let it affect the rest of my performance,” Asada said. “So I’m satisfied.”
The two American women competing at the worlds, Alissa Czisny and Rachael Flatt, left less than satisfied, however.
They had failed to place high enough to earn three entries for the coming Winter Games. To earn those spots, they had to finish 13th or better here, combined, but only rose to 16th. For the first time since 1994, the United States will have only two skaters in the women’s event at an Olympics.
Czisny, who won the United States national championship in January, finished 11th, with 159.78 points. Flatt, the 2008 junior world champion, finished fifth, with 172.41
“The outcome is not in my hands,” Czisny said of the United States team having only two entries for Vancouver. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”
After falling twice in her short program, Czisny redeemed herself in her long program, skating to the soundtrack from Dr. Zhivago. Before heading onto the ice, she said she tried to forget about the pressure. It helped.
She landed three triple jumps cleanly and smiled wide, a rare sight this week.
Flatt, however, had hardly stopped smiling during these world championships, her first one at the senior level. For her program, which had six clean triples, she was given her best long-program score yet: 113.11.
To celebrate, she said, she is going to Disneyland.
“Skating two pretty solid programs was very exciting for my first worlds,” Flatt, 16, said. “This experience was irreplaceable. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Kim could not ask for much more, either.
She grinned when she landed some jumps during her long program. For others, she let her mouth fall open in amazement.
She aborted one triple jump, then also missed one of her spins, receiving zero points for it. But the rest of her program was performed with such ease, she looked as if she were dancing on a stage in ballet slippers — not skating on a slick sheet of ice.
Her short program Friday was just as breathtaking. It was virtually without a flaw and her score showed it. She was given 76.12 points, the best ever for a woman.
After both programs were done, Kim said she was thrilled that she had achieved the biggest goal of her career so far: the world title. But a chance for an Olympic gold medal awaits.
“This world championships is the last competition before the Olympic season, so I really wanted to get this title,” said Kim, who trains with the two-time Olympic medalist Brian Orser in Toronto.
Kim is usually composed when hearing her national anthem play, but that was an impossible feat Saturday.
Soon after the first note sounded, she could not stop tears.
She wiped them off carefully, with the back of her fingers, so not to mess up her makeup. There were too many tears to catch, though, as they rolled down her face.
“I couldn’t hold it in,” she said.
