What comes to one’s mind when you hear this word could be guessed fairly easily, for the amount of knowledge about figure skating is usually extremely limited for ordinary people. Most of the so-called “ordinary” people probably think of girls spinning in white skates and short skirts when they hear this word. But figure skating is not only about spinning and prancing around in those skates. It is, rather, something far more than sports or, as some people claim, arts. This term paper not only will be dealing with Yuna Kim, the queen of figure skating, but it also will be dealing with things related to figure skating that many people are not aware of. The term paper will naturally provide valuable information, as it goes on talking about Yuna Kim, starting off with her childhood, the process and achievements that she went through, and the overall information about figure skating itself.

The Childhood of Yuna Kim: How did she start figure skating?

Although it is not very surprising, many information about Yuna’s childhood could be found in Brian Orser’s autobiography, which is a book named “One Thousand Jumps for One Leap”. Yuna was born in South Korea in 1990.(Park, Ned) At that time, no one knew that she would become a world-famous figure skater. Many people wonder about how she must have started figure skating.

It all started like this. When she was young, Yuna went to an ice link to get figure skating lessons with her older sister. Yuna wasn’t really interested in many things by the time. When her mother sent her to learn piano or art, Yuna just carried her bag back and forth from her home and didn’t seem interested. Yuna’s violin teacher even said that Yuna wasn’t talented in music. Yuna was very bored to take Ballet lessons as well. But figure skating was a complete different story for Yuna. Whenever she was on the ice, her eyes sparkled and she never stopped smiling. When her mother bought her some videos related to figure skating, Yuna stared at the television screen and tried to imitate the skaters’ jumps, spins, movements, and even their facial expressions. (Orser 28) Even by that time, her mother wasn’t aware of that fact that Yuna was extremely talented in figure skating. She knew that Yuna enjoyed skating, but she didn’t consider further until Yuna’s coach asked her to consider teaching Yuna professionally. That was the time of decision. Yuna’s mother was aware of the fact that figure skating was extremely expensive to do, and there always had to be sacrifices of the family. However, Yuna’s mother decided to do what was best for Yuna despite the difficulties. (Orser 29) At this point, it will be better to inform that there are so many things people don’t know about figure skating. Most people already know that figure skating costs a lot of money, and it is so especially for those who are willing to take figure skating seriously enough for their future careers. But what people don’t really know is the harsh reality. Figure skating may seem so beautiful and graceful; the truth is, it has no vision unless people become one of the top skaters. Some indicated that figure skating is exactly like gambling. People have to invest so much money and effort into it, but only the top gets repaid for it, and nothing lasts for those who don’t make it to the top. It was all too same for Yuna as well. When she finally decided to skate for her life, her entire family had to give up many things. It cost almost 3 million dollars just to pay for Yuna’s coach. If she didn’t make it in the competitions, all those time, money, and effort became worthless. On the other hand, if the skaters become widely known for their achievements, there are so many advantages that the skaters can get, for sports take up a huge portion of people’s everyday lives. “Korean companies are sponsoring famous athletes and sporting events to boost sales during the current hard economic times.” said the reporter Jae Min Shin of Young Times. (Sports Marketing Gives Boost to Korean Companies 1)

Achievements: Competitions and Far More

These were the main competitions that she has won just in 2008. (It would be more honorable and easier to put them directly in Korean)

-아시아 뉴스 네트워크 선정 아시아의 우상

-대한빙상경기연맹 피겨스케이팅 부문 최우수 선수상

-제 13회 코카콜라 체육대상 인기상

-한국이미지커뮤니케이션연구원 KOREA 2008 한국 이미지 새싹상 -2008 대한민국 대표 브랜드 대상 특별상 -2008 대한민국 스포츠 레저산업대상 특별공로상 -2008 NATE 골든 아이콘 어워드 선정 올해의 모바일 싸이월드 부문 1위 -환경재단 선정 세상을 밝게 만든 100인 -청와대 수여 2008 대한민국 인재상- TVCF 어워즈 선정 2008년 광고를 빛낸 최고의 모델 -MTV 코리아 선정 2008년 한 해를 빛낸 최고의 인물 (Park, Ned) It is an unfortunate reality that almost all skaters must suffer from small and big injuries. It certainly wasn’t an exception for Yuna as well. She had to keep practicing despite her injuries, and after she won so many medals after, she began to gain more confidence. She also learned how to get used to the injuries, and how not to become depressed because of the injuries. (Orser 120) “Her score not only eclipsed rival Mao Asada’s record of 199.52 for the highest combined score, but also made Kim, a two time Grand Prix final champion, the first skater to score more than 200 points since the new scoring system was adopted in 2004.” is what the reporter Jin Soo Chung added in Young Times. (Kim Yu-na Makes History) But for Yuna, it was the most amazing experience in her life. Not only that, she had broke the world record and purely reached the top. Besides, the new scoring system did not affect Yuna Kim at all, for her jumps and spins were “perfect”. (Orser 74) All these important factors will bring her a great deal of advantage in 2010, when the Olympics will be held. Modern Olympics only had summer-sports category. But in 1908, in the 4th Olympics, figure skating was the first winter-sports to be categorized as a formal Olympic sports. (Ki 52) Yuna is already on the top, but she is still jumping higher and higher to the very top. Until then, all we can do is sit back and cheer for her silently and pray that she achieves everything she wanted. ” “I know this sounds like a trite remark, but I’ll say it over and over because it is all so true. Without you all cheering for me, I wouldn’t have been able to do all these things. Thank you, and I love you all.” (Kim, Yuna) Works Cited Orser, Brian. One Thousand Jumps for One Leap”(한번의 비상을 위한 천번의 점프). Seoul: Woong Jin Books, 2009 Ki, Young No. Fun Sports Stories for News Papers and News(신문이 보이고 뉴스가 들리는 재미있는 스포츠 이야기). Seoul: Gana Publisher, 2006 Shin, Jae Min. “Sports Marketing Gives Boost to Korean Companies” Young Times. March, 2009: p. 1 Chung, Jin Soo. “Kim Yu-na Makes History.” Young Times. April, 2009: p. 1 Park,Ned. About Yuna. 2008(exact date not presented). November 4th, 2009. Kim, Yuna. “My Diaries” . September 2nd, 2009. November 5th, 2009.

It is in a musical, and it does many things

including: dancing, singing,etc

I don’t see why robots should be on stage

There are so many people willing to go

on stage. Why should a robot take place?

Besides, its voice is a recorded voice of

someone else, too

The proposition side  understood the topic as “just ranking the students according to their scores”

and the opposition understood the topic as “ranking the students into CATEGORIES according to their scores”.

However, the teams could still talk about what true learning is, and what motivates the students to study

harder.

I was the whip of the opposition side, and i have found three main clashes in this debate.

One was about whether it motivates the students to study harder or not.

The proposition team thought that the system would, because students would obvisouly want to be the

top students. However, the opposition team believed that it will not motivate the students, but it will only

make the students to feel miserable because they know that no matter how hard they try, there are always

students that they can not win over.

The second one was about whether it promotes private eductaion. The proposition said that money spent

on education is immense anyways, so people spending money on provate education is not a big deal anyways.

The last one was about whether it is efficient when it is applied to high schools.

Because I am not the type of a person who prepares speech before hand (I usually do it with a small note in

my hand and most of my speech are made impromptu, and trust me, I can do it much better than doing it

prepare beforehand), I didn’t have a prepared speech with me by the time, nor with me now.

The truth is that, this debate truly made me think deeply once again about true eductaion and

what could be done in order to solve the problems regarding education in Korea.

Tropical storm Ida is coming up

Forthood shootings- Nadal Hason –>how is he related?

or, was he ever related from the first place? Further incestigations are definitely needed

A student pointed our that there could have been more than one shooter..

I think that’s also possible

But above all these things, it is a tragedy that these things happen all the time,

and it can’t really be stopped..

The best solution to this tragedy would be more precise investigations

and hearings from other people who were around.

2. The main reason of marriage is love, not necessarily reproduction. True love includes love between homosexuals also.

3. Studies and researches show that gay couples’ children are not affected directly psychologically. Although there are cases where the children get affected by other friends, the government can change these perspectives by legallizing same sex marriage.

1 billion dollar profit was gained, which led to the amount of money being sent

to increase.

Construction spending also increased

–>money not distributed equally

Profits vs. Loss

Why does somebody always have to get hurt when others take the advantage?

The world seems too complicated when I look into the News

<–>morgage.

Exactly, what is the real question to all these issues?

http://www.cyworld.com/figureyuna/

http://www.yunakim.com/

All these references that I have found not only contain pictures, but it also has

the results of Yuna’s competitions and back ground.

I’m pretty sure that the book I have is going to provide

most information that i need for the term paper,

but i believed that these reference sites will also

provide me with a lot of thngns as well.

To organize what exactly i need for the term paper,

it will probably be information about her background,

incidents that can tell us about her efforts, etc.