A Mother’s Fierce Devotion

A Mother’s Fierce Devotion

Kim Yu-na’s shoulder as she was performing in the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix final on Sunday was festooned with yellow tape. To overcome her waist pain, she had to wear pressure tapes from waist to shoulder in addition to painkillers. Performing to the soaring strains of Vaughn Williams’ “Lark Ascending”, the 16-year-old girl, despite her pain, ascended like a lark and descended like a swan.   For the first time in our 100-year history of skating, a Korean athlete has won one of the world’s top figure skating competitions, where only six outstanding champions screened in the Grand Prix series take part. Her Japanese rivals, who were ranked first and second and far outperformed Kim the previous day, failed by falling on the ice. And so, after her three victories in junior championships and another in the fourth Grand Prix series last month, the 10th grader wrote a new page in Korea's figure skating history. So far, figure skating has been seen as an event Koreans have little invested in. Europe is far ahead of us in terms of physical condition and skill, and the huge cost is off-putting for ordinary families. As a consequence, we have fewer than 100 registered figure skaters. But thanks to her mother Park Mi-hui’s training, little Yu-na was transformed into a national treasure. Since she took her seven-year old to the skating rink for the first time, Park has devoted herself entirely to her daughter.   Kim Yu-na's day starts at 8 a.m. with running and physical training in her neighborhood, continues at noon with three hours of skating training at Taenung Training Center, more physical training in the afternoon, and ends near midnight at the Gwacheon indoor rink. Throughout the long day’s training, it is her mother who pats, berates and encourages her. Park has become an expert, collecting and analyzing video footage of world figure skating champions.   For nearly 10 years, Yun-na’s middle-class parents sent her on an annual overseas training course costing W15 million (US$1=W927) each time. They should not have had to. Since 1994, the Japan Skating Federation has financially supported 100 young figure-skaters every year, assigning them world-class coaches and choreographers and sending them overseas. But here, that burden was left to her parents. There were tears in Park’s eyes at the press conference when she recalled the difficulties of the past. But what an achievement, this decade watching over Yu-na until she was ready to take wing!