Risky business? Kim Yuna resists pressure from skating officials

Conspiracy theorists will have a ball with the pressure being applied on reigning world champion Kim Yuna to skate Jan. 25-31 in the Four Continents Championships in her home country, South Korea.

International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy confirmed to me via telephone Monday that he asked the Korean Skating Union last month in a letter to have Kim compete in the utterly meaningless event.

That would require her to make the long trip to Jeonju City, South Korea, from her training base in Toronto, which Kim’s coach, Brian Orser, does not want her do.

"We have known about this event for a year," Orser said Monday via telephone.  "As far as our strategy for the Olympics and the whole peaking process, it just didn’t fit in.

"I understand their (the ISU) side of it as well.  She is a superstar of Korea.  What we have to do is put the skater first."

Cinquanta said his letter to the Korean federation included a reference to ISU rule 136 (6), which allows sanctions against national federations whose skaters do not participate in those ISU events that have TV or commercial contracts.

"I told them we hope you will enter this skater in the event for the development of figure skating in Korea and for the prestige of the ISU," Cinquanta said.

"This is a championship they (the Korean federation) asked for. It is a moment they can use to promote skating in their country.  They have one talent, one champion. Not entering this skater – what is that?"

The Korea Times first reported last week that Cinquanta had made a formal request to the Korean federation to have Kim go to Four Continents.

 A Korea Skating Union official came to Toronto last week to discuss the situation with Kim, her mother, and her agent.  The federation official accepted their explanation and agreed with the decision not to have her compete at Four Continents.

"We have had the support of the Korean federation all along," Orser said.

Cinquanta said the Koreans would have to provide a good reason, such as injury or illness, to avoid a sanction if Kim does not skate at Four Continents.  He said using the travel issue would be "something that must be evaluated."

Essentially trying to force Kim to compete at Four Continents would add fuel to those who argue the ISU is doing everything it can to stack the deck against the South Korean, whose primary rivals in Vancouver will be Japanese: 2008 world champion Mao Asada and 2007 world champion Miki Ando.

Skating message boards have been buzzing for two years about alleged deals between the ISU and the Japan skating federation (four of the seven ISU official sponsors are Japanese companies; the other three are French) to make sure judges are aware of potential flaws in Kim's skating. The combination of historic suspicion over judging in figure skating and historic political and cultural animosity between South Korea and Japan undoubtedly is feeding these rumors.

They picked up steam at the Grand Prix Final, when the technical panel gave a questionable downgrade to both Kim’s triple-triple combination and an individual triple toe loop -- especially since the same technical specialists will work the Olympics. (The video below makes a case for the downgrade on the combination being unjustified.)

Cinquanta said he did not threaten the South Koreans with a sanction if they did not enter Kim for Four Continents and that he could not either force them to do it or ban her from the Olympics if she does not.

"She is entered for the Olympics by the national Olympic committee of South Korea," Cinquanta said.  "But for the national Olympic committee, this (Four Continents) is also a good opportunity to develop the sport."

Not to mention currying favor with Cinquanta, also an IOC member, given that Pyeongchang, South Korea is bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics after narrow defeats in the voting for 2010 and 2014.

Cinquanta feels Kim would gain more from competing in South Korea than she would lose by having to make the trip (a 14-hour flight to Seoul plus a 180-mile bus ride – and a 14-hour time difference to create some major jet lag.)

"This is not one day before the Olympic Games," Cinquanta said.  "This is 25 days before (the women’s event).

"If you were a coach, would you have the skater go into the Olympics after no competition for more than two months?"

Kim last skated in the Grand Prix Final the first week of December.  But she gave her best performance of this season at her first Grand Prix event in October, nearly seven months after her previous competition.

Tuesday is the deadline for Four Continents entries.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo:  Kim Yuna with her gold medal at December's Grand Prix Final.  (AP)

Comments

[Jayne]

This is total b.s. Individual skaters should have control over the events that they enter without pressure from idiots like Cinquanta, who was a speedskater, not a figure skater, and doesn't understand the sport at all. BTW speed skating does not do this to their athletes.

Apparently tapering, timing of cross training, etc have zero meaning for him.

The 4C's event needs to die, the Grand Prix season, plus nationals, plus Europeans for some is plenty of pressure and beating on the bodies trying to do Triple/Triples (women) and Quad/Triples (men).

Can you imagine the pressure Cinquanta puts on the Europeans? They have just concluded their nationals and now need to attend Euros. When are they supposed to have time to prepare for 4C's AND the Olympics?

YuNa - keep your eyes on the prize and skip 4C's. Cinquanta can take a long skate off a short pier.

[Jonathan Strathem]

Japanese people are simply spectacular. Somehow they force ISU to give her downgrade points on otherwise perfect jump. Now, they are pressuring ISU to force Yuna to come all the way to Korea so she has a better chance at losing the Olympic. Youtube is full of videos, capturing Japanese skaters bullying Yuna during practice at every single event. Are they blind or something>

[Ericsfca]

This is such idle speculation. The reason ISU wants Kim to compete at the 4C is because it's her home country and the ISU can generate some hype (and $) for her attendance. To say that he is trying to sabotage Kim's quest for Olympic gold is just trying to stir the pot. The rabid Korean and Japanese fans are already going crazy over this rivalry - this will just add to that.

As for the 4C, it was put in place so that skaters from the Americas and Asia (theoretically Africa and Australia as well) can have one more ISU competition before Worlds (and Olympics in this year), similar to the Europeans. Europeans do not compete at 4C - hence the name.

[Jay Latham]

The downgrade on her 3Lz-3T at the Grand Prix Final was truly befuddling. Since the landing itself was not under-rotated, I checked to see if they were downgrading her based on pre-rotation, but none was to be found. Add to that the fact that the judges gave her a huge GOE bonus, and I really can't understand what the technical panel was thinking. I hate to consider it, as figure skating has been plagued by backroom dealings for so long, but the only explanation I can think of is that some third-party interest, whether it be the ISU or its Japanese sponsors, was applying some sort of pressure on the technical specialist who downgraded her jump. The fact that the same specialist also started adding wrong edge marks to her 3F-3T last year makes it all the more suspicious.

[Stream]

Please visit the exactly same article on Chicago Tribune, Mr. P. Hersh's Globetrotting a worldly view of sports. You can see many interesting comments there, too. I wish journalists would be professional to provoke the truth. I feel sad with a lot of Japanese gossip writers. They make up gossips as if all the people thinking like that. We never say those people are the journalists, they never tell the truth with presenting the formal sources. They just bring catchy story and sell their paper. We call them gossip writers.
There are journalists who try to write the truth dedicating their life, and even in jailed. They are the true journalists indeed.
Mr. Hersh, many people expect you to bring formal sources to this article as a journalist and hope you will change this odd situation cleanly.

[DORI]

There was a questionable judgement not only to Yuna's 3LZ-3T at 09 GPF Tokyo but also to 3F-3T 08-09 season at COC, which had the same technical panel. Yu-na's Flip has been the same since she was in the junior level. She's got +2 GOE almost every time, never had a wrong edge mark, and never had the attention mark with the perfect slight inside edge 3F-3T jump as you can see in her previous competitions held before 08 COC.

BUT SUDDENLY, A WRONG EDGE MARK APPEARED AT 08 COC, ATTENTION MARK AT 09 4CC & 09 WORLD. Many commentators in the US, Germany, UK, Canada, China and in Japan praised her 3F-3T saying it's the perfect jump. Many skaters like Yamaguchi, Patrick Chan and Stephan Lambiel said her 3F-3T is amazing. Even after the wrong edge mark appeared, they said that it's such a clean and perfect jump.

You can see for yourself by watching the videos below If her flip is actually lip, when IT'S NOT!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTQp1wpVP7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWtkv2Pb9Fo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNm9xQsVGE4

She is a fighter, though. She made a difficult decision this season and changed her 3F-3T which she jumped as an opening combination from junior for many years, to 3L-3T. She had to change it, a trademark for her which always gave her highest GOE in ladie's programs due to the strange wronge edge mark suddenly appeared last season. (She had suceeded in landing the perfect 3-3 throughout last season!)

3L-3T is even more difficult combination jump with higher points than 3F-3T. (Actually, 3L-3T(10) has the highset points this seaseon in Ladies problem , which is even higher than Mao's 3A-2T(9.5).She got +2 GOE in Eric Bompard, and +2.2 GOE in Skate America this season with 3L-3T. Her 3L-3T at Tokyo was even better than the previous ones but she got a misterious downgrade mark with this. Suzuki Akarawa said this 3-3 is so good that she could get +2 GOE at Japanese broadcasting. Scott Hamilton said that he can't understand why this jump was downgraded at NBC.

It's such a shame that we can't see her perfect 3F-3T anymore because of the mysterious judge.
I'm so worried that the same thing is happening with her 3L-3T jump. it's just so sad to watch as a figure skating fan.
I hope that computer based technical judging system could be introduced to see skater's icemark, edge, and rotation one day.

[Mary Baker]

Cinquanta, scornfully nicknamed Speedy by figure skating fans for just this kind of nonsense, has not changed a bit. He is determined to promote his pet competitions, overpacking the seasons with competitions (there was a time when there was no 4 Continents or Grand Prix), exhausting the skaters, all for the almight dollar. Michelle Kwan successfully stood up to him, using her considerable clout to thumb her nose at his tantrums and demands, and Kim Yu-Na should do the same thing.