Kim Yuna of South Korea leads after women's figure skating short program

Kim Yuna of South Korea leads after the short program of the women's figure skating event on Tuesday at the Vancouver Olympics. Yuna, who skated to a James Bond medley, scored 78.50 points.

Mao Asada of Japan is in second place with 73.78 points after she skated to the "Waltz Masquerade" by Aram Khatchaturian.

Canada's Joannie Rochette, whose mother passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on Sunday, received a lengthy standing ovation after she finished. She skated to "La Cumparsita" and received 71.36 points, putting her in third place.

Miki Ando of Japan skated to "Requiem" by Mozart and finished with 64.76 points, good for fourth place.

Rachael Flatt of the U.S., skating to "Sing Sing Sing," is in fifth place with 64.64 points

Mirai Nagasu of the U.S., skating to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtrack, is in sixth place with 63.76 points. Her nose started bleeding midway through her performance.

“Halfway there I felt stuff running down my nose and thinking ‘don’t think about it just keep going.’ My performance tonight wasn’t as good as nationals, I’m a little disappointed but I think the next Olympics I’ll know how to feel.”

-- Houston Mitchell in Vancouver, Canada

Photo: Kim Yuna of South Korea competes during the short program Tuesday night. Credit: Richard Mackson / U.S. Presswire

Comments

[MikeOHara]

You're mixing and matching last and first names. Kim is her last (family) name; Asada, Ando, and Nagasu are their last (family) names. Yet only Kim's family name is first.

[Martin Osborne]

Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezik (and most uninformed sportswriters) are so enamored with Yu-Na Kim that they are failing to report that she should be downgraded for her substandard layback. Her free leg is pointing downward instead of being turned out, which lessens the degree of difficulty. Her spiral free leg also points downward, instead of being turned out (or "winged").

Compare the layback to that of either Joannie Rochette, Rachael Flatt or Mirai Nagasu and you will see what I mean.

[ondal]

um, no mention that Kim's score was a new world record? worst blog post ever.

[Rick]

Mike, Hersh has it right. In some Asian countries, the respectful way to say someone's name is to say the family name first. It was the same with Lu Chen (the 94 & 98 bronze medalist) who was often called Chen Lu out of respect for her culture. It's not that way in Japan, so Hersh isn't putting the family names first for the skaters of Japanese descent.

I agree with Martin about Kim being overmarked. Her layback leg position is not as good as Mao Asada's. In addition Kim's spins looked slower and her spiral positions were not as difficult. When Kim holds her leg behind her, she holds the foot on the same side of the arm she's using. While Asada's arm reaches across to the other foot, which is much more difficult and shows better flexibility. I also felt that Mao's regular spirals showed better stretch and tension in the legs.

No mention of Kim's score being a new world record doesn't bother me. I am more surprised that the media seems to downplay the fact that Asada is the first woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics in 18 years (Midori Ito, 1992)!!! You can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate.

[ondal]

Martin and Rick--

You guys obviously don't follow figure skating regularly, that bent leg layback is Yuna's trademark "Yuna spin." Duh.

[Bah]

We all know what's gonna happen. After a terrific short program, she'll find some way to choke in her final performance thursday. Just like the Korean WBC baseball team and their world cup soccer team. They go beyond all expectation but can't quite clinch the top prize. The summer olympics was an exception.

Yeah, I know Kim and Korean track skaters are world champs. But Mao Asada is more stiff competition than Ohno and JR Celski.

[PC]

Bah, your comments are ridiculous.

You can't compare the WBC baseball team and the World Cup soccer team to Yuna Kim. For the baseball and soccer team, they had far greater success than they were expected to. They didn't choke. You're telling me that the World Cup soccer team was expected to win the championship?

Yuna Kim has been the most dominating skater for the past couple years and has set records for points. She is expected to win because she is at the top of her sport.

[kooo]

What's up haters. FYI - Sportswriters don't do the scoring or judging.

[Bah]

PC, did you miss the part where I acknowledged her as world champ? How Korean teams often exceed expectations?

Koreans often win on the global stage, but they also miss the ultimate prize after coming so close, which breaks our heart. The Korean baseball team choked big time by not walking Ichiro Suzuki after the ninth inning.

You must be fooling yourself if you think most Korean viewers will watch thursday's final event nice and relaxed. Because Koreans have absolute faith in Olympic judges, and they never winessed their athletes choking or getting screwed over with bad calls, right? With Mao Asada only 5 points behind?

[ohmygod]

a bunch of comments below are completely silly. especilly martin osborne. lol at you

[Izzie]

I have to say, out of the sports Bah mentioned, its all different situations. Why do you even compare team sports to an individual one? And Mao has had an inconsistent season, whereas Kim Yuna has done nothing but deliver under pressure. So to say that shes gonna choke today seems to be a little presumptious

[Rick]

Ondal, obviously you don't follow figure skating regularly. The Yu-Na spin is her bent leg camel spin. Not a toe-turned-down layback spin. And Yu-Na isn't even the first woman to do that spin. It was first done by Tonya Harding about 20 years ago.

Her layback leg position is not as strong as Mao's or Mirai's. If you followed figure skating regularly you would know this because Dick Button has been critical of poor leg positions forever.

[Jim]

Taking this conversation back into the realm of figure skating, we have to acknowledge a fact that so many major media outlets conveniently neglect to mention: that Yu-na Kim suffered major back injuries and problems, which obviously can potentially last for a lifetime, and the painful peak of which happened during the isu world's two years ago - where Kim got the bronze. She obviously was flexible in all areas except for those in which she needed to utilize her lower back/the small of her back.... the same 'problems' that many of these 'enlightened folk' here speak about. The only reason Kim won bronze that year instead of gold was due to the fact that she was on literally a ton of meds (including pain meds)... and she could still feel the pain to the point where she was crying, and yet she still managed to pull off a stellar performance - although you could tell by the way she moved so gingerly that it was paining her to even skate in the first place. TO THIS DAY, Kim is still experiencing the effects of her back/hip problems... and she cannot give as much freedom to even the more simpler aspects of her programs.. including spirals, spins, and all that good stuff. But she can accomplish enough to get by and make everything look beautiful as a package, because of her incredible talent. What's funny is that what Kim does to 'get by' in terms of her spirals and other movements that require her to be flexible with her back - turns out to be as great as any other skater. Sure, you people say you notice a difference... but there is no longer a difference - Yu-na has accomplished creating her own style and added it to those elements, so that no judge can possibly in their right minds call her out for something that she has turned into her own beautiful masterpiece. No skater is going to skate the same as another. Each has his/her own individual style, and that doesn't make the execution of each skater's element better or worse than another's. It's time that you accepted that - everyone else has.

Enough said.