Korean women’s figure skating signboard Yoo Young (18, Surigo) is getting close to winning a medal at the World Figure Skating Championships. If she wins a medal, she will be the first Korean player in 9 years.
Yoo Young, who placed 6th in the women’s singles figure skating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, scored 38.04 points in skill and art points in the women’s single short program at the 2022 International Skating Union (ISU) Figure Skating World Championships held at the Seude de France Arena in Montpellier, France on the 23rd (local time). With a total score of 34.04 points, 72.08 points were placed 4th out of 33 students. Yoo Young, who made her first world championship, didn’t break her own short program high of 78.22, but she managed to reach her high this season. Haein Lee (17, Sehwa Girls’ High School), who played together, received 32.33 technical points and 31.83 artistic points, placing 11th with a total of 64.16 points.
Yuna Kim (32), the ‘Queen of Figure Skating’ is the only Korean female athlete to win a medal at the World Championships. Yuna Kim won two gold medals at the 2009 and 2013 World Championships and she also won two silver medals (2010 and 2011) and two bronze medals (2007 and 2008).
Yooyoung’s chances of winning a medal are higher than ever. This is because the ‘Russian Trio’ (Kamila Balieva, Anna Sherbakova, and Alexandra Trusova), who currently boasts the best skills in the world, will not be able to participate in this tournament due to disciplinary action following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sherbakova won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics and Trusova won a silver medal. Balieva, who was embroiled in drug controversy, also ranked fourth at the time.
(AP Photo / Francisco Seco)On this day, Yooyoung performed a double axel (2 and a half laps) jump as her first jump. The triple axel (three and a half laps) jump, which was also shown in the Olympics, did not run. Yooyoung said, “During practice this morning, I felt that the triple axel jump was not good. So he decided to double axel to improve the program,” she said. The rest of the jumps weren’t completely successful and they didn’t get high points. Yooyoung said, “I feel a little tired after the Olympics,” but “But because I’ve experienced the Olympics, I’m less nervous. In that respect, I think it is good to achieve the goal of a clean program in this competition.”
Lee Hae-in, who took part in the World Championships due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) of Kim Ye-rim (19, Surigo), said, “I cried when I heard that I could go to the World Championships. I want to play well that much.” “I was very nervous today. In free skating, I will focus more and finish.”
The first place in the short program was won by Beijing Olympic bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto (Japan) with 80.32 points. Luna Hendrix (Belgium) is in second place with 75.00 points, and Maria Bell (USA) is third with 72.55 points. Yoo Young is only three points behind second place, so in the free skating starting on the 26th, if she makes no mistakes, she is highly likely to win a medal.
Reporter Dongwook Kim [email protected]