I won’t pretend to be a figure skating expert, but judging by the number of times this little ditty I wrote about Kim Yu-na came up on searches, I’d say she had something of a coming out partyinternationally over the weekend. Not sure how often I’ll follow her story, since I might be tired of hearing about it…in a few minutes. But I wanted to recap the weekend and link to some galleries from Korean fan sites.

Kim won the Skate America title over the weekend, ending with a total of 193.45 points, easily defeating Yukari Nakano of Japan, whose score was 172.53, and Miki Ando, the 2007 world champion, who finished with 168.42.

Helene Elliott, who looks like she knows what she’s talking about, wrote this for the LA Times:

Performing Sunday to Sheherazade, she skated a dazzling routine marred only slightly when she turned a planned triple loop to a single. She received a warm ovation from banner-waving members of nearby Korean communities and from everyone who recognized brilliance when they saw it.

Otherwise formidable — she pulled off a difficult triple flip-triple toe loop combination jump with ease — Kim turned a 12-point lead after the short program into a rout and finished with 193.45 points.

You’ll notice the title of Elliott’s story is called “For Asian women, it’s victory on ice.” That’s also a big theme to the weekend.  

From the Seattle Times:

Asia rises. America clings to past glory.

It’s not an economic treatise, just a sky-view snapshot of the figure skating world as the countdown begins to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Sunday’s final sequined flourish of Skate America in Everett only served as confirmation: If figure skating’s marquee event, the women’s Olympic final, took place tomorrow — or even in six months — it’d be a blowout, with a medal stand packed with talented skaters from Japan and Korea.

Here’s Mr.  Ask a Korean Sportswriter  himself Yoo Jee-ho, writing on Sunday’s ladies’ short program. I actually caught this routine and enjoyed it, especially the sultry  little face she made at the end.

I think the problem I have with figure skating is its subjective scoring system. It’s sort of like scoring wine. I like wine, but I can’t guess how people score it and I have a hard time telling the difference between good and really good, which leads me to assume that people cheat and have bias. Of course this has happened in figure skating more than a few times, which doesn’t help.

But you shouldn’t care what I think. Here are some links to some Kim Yu-na galleries for all the people who end up here via search 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9…10. That ought to keep you busy.