One aspect of life in Thailand that is a bummer is that there isn't any figure skating on TV, not that I get cable or anything, but that might inspire me to do so. Instead, I follow skating via icenetwork.com and youtube. I'm lucky that most of the performances I want to see are on youtube within a day of the event, though I don't ever get the nail biting thrill of watching and wondering what the result will be.
This weekend was the world championships, which were held in London, Ontario- about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Detroit. At worlds, the 2010 Olympic Champion, Yuna Kim, has returned to big time competition, and boy am I glad. She's the best thing for ladies skating since Michelle Kwan. The US ladies are a bit, well, boring, most of the time- though there is a new skater (Gracie Gold) who excites me a bit in what she can do. Last night Queen Yuna regained her world title and reestablished her dominance (not only did she win, she CRUSHED the competition) setting herself up to repeat as Olympic Champion, a feat no one has accomplished since Katerina Witt in the 1980's. Actually, no lady has even really attempted it since then.
That's part of why you can put Yuna's name in the same sentence as Michelle Kwan- her Olympic victory wasn't a fluke, it wasn't a single great performance that she snuck in there to win. She won because she was the best in the field, by far. Technically, artistically, musically- near perfect. This year she has skated to Les Mis, which only puts her higher in my estimation. I know who I'm rooting for in Sochi next year!
You can watch her amazing winning freeskate here.
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