Jennifer Kirk: Kim is in her own field of gold

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Jennifer Kirk, who finished third at the U.S. figure skating championships in 2004 and fourth in 2005, will write a weekly blog for The Times providing insights into the skating world during the final months leading into the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Since retiring from figure skating in 2005, Kirk, 25, has been working on obtaining a college degree in broadcast journalism and has spent the last few months blogging about skating at Trueslant.com/jenniferkirk.
World Champion Kim Yu-Na’s skating at last weekend’s Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris made a bold statement: Olympic gold is mine to lose.

Picking off where she left off at the World Championships last spring, Kim blew away the field of 10 in Paris. Debuting two new, more sophisticated programs, Kim skated with a level of ease rarely seen in skaters so early in the season.

Even her addition of a more difficult combination -- the triple lutz-triple toe loop -- to both her short and long programs didn’t seem to faze “Queen Yu-Na,” as she’s referred to by her fans, and she easily smashed the previous world record (set by her), scoring a combined total of 210.03 points.

If Kim continues to deliver as she has in the last few events, it will be nearly impossible for any lady to snatch gold away from her in Vancouver. This reality must sit heavy with 2008 world champion Mao Asada, who has played the role of Kim’s closest rival over the last few seasons.

Asada defeated Kim at the 2008 World Championships and again at last year’s Grand Prix final, setting herself up in a great position to defend her world title last March in Los Angeles. However, after missing her triple lutz in her short program and crashing on the landing of her second triple axel in her long program, Asada was left to watch Kim become skating’s newest leading lady and was left without a medal in an international event for the first time in her career.

Unfortunately, Asada’s performance quality at Trophee Bompard seemed to mimic that seen at last season’s World Championships. It appears that Asada has come to realize that the only way that she’ll be able to contend with Kim’s exceptional consistency and technical abilities is to capitalize on the one element that Kim does not have in her arsenal: the triple axel. Asada reportedly spent most of her practice time in Paris with a myopic focus on her triple axel, choosing to abandon the training of her triple lutz and triple-triple combination.

While Asada has had fleeting success with the triple axel in her long program at past events, this season she’s made the bold move of putting it in as part of her short program combination. This isn’t smart. Asada’s triple axel is nowhere near consistent enough to rely on as a short program combination, and by attempting the axel, Asada is only increasing the odds that she will make a mistake in the first phase of the competition.

This was exactly what happened in Paris. Completely popping out of her triple axel attempt in the short, Asada was sitting in third place after Day One of the event. Although Asada did manage to land a beautiful triple axel-double toe loop to start her long program in last Saturday‘s ladies’ final, the nearly 20-point gap between her and Kim after the short program left it virtually impossible for Asada to make up the difference in points. Asada went on to make two mistakes in her long program and had to settle for the silver medal.

Asada’s tendency toward technical mistakes, particularly in the short program, has always been her biggest downfall. If I were Asada, I would instead work on my triple flip-triple loop combination and the consistency and takeoff on my triple lutz. Even if it means doing a simpler triple flip-double toe loop and taking a triple loop out of footwork in her short program, Asada must skate a clean short if she wants to keep herself in contention heading into the long program.

While I’m sure Asada is incredibly worried about her chances in Vancouver, as it doesn’t look like Kim is going to leave the door open even an inch for another woman to step in and contend for Olympic gold, adding a triple axel to her short program and forgetting about the other elements to her skating is not the solution in her battle against Kim. If Asada continues to put all her eggs in one basket, there is a good chance she’ll find herself off the podium in Vancouver, and this “greatest competition” of the best talent, won’t be much of a competition at all.

-- Jennifer Kirk

(bottom) Kim Yu-Na in competition. Credit: Associated Press