“That’s weird, Sam,” you say. “You totally seem like the kind of guy who has a Michelle Kwan poster in your bedroom and knows exactly what Brian Boitano would do. You probably keep a leotard and pair of skates in your car’s trunk at all times, just in case you pass a frozen pond. ”
Hardy har har, aren’t you funny.
And no, I don’t do those things, nor do I follow figure skating on any type of regular or semi-regular basis. However, Blades of Glory is among my oft-quoted movies, and the whole Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan snafu definitely stands in my memory as one of the crazier sport scandals of my lifetime. And, yes, once every four years during the Winter Olympics, I do occasionally leave figure skating on in the background while I do something else more exciting … like count the hairs on my arm.
But I make the following statement in all seriousness: If you missed Kim Yu-Na’s gold-medal-winning figure skating performances during the 2010 Winter Olympics, you need to change that. Now.
Luckily for you, we live in the YouTube Age. NBColympics.com makes it relatively easy (and this should make it even easier) to find the entire video footage of Kim Yu-Na’s short program, free skate, and gala performances from Vancouver.
Not convinced it’s worth your while? Allow me to persuade you.
As aforementioned, figure skating’s not my favorite sport. In fact, I’m not sure it qualifies as a sport, along with curling, cheerleading, and a number of other activities that require some athletic skill … but that’s an argument for a different day.
The point is, you don’t need to be any kind of figure skating enthusiast to appreciate what Kim Yu-Na (or maybe it’s Yu-Na Kim, who knows) did in Vancouver. All you need is a pair of eyes and the ability to appreciate brilliance, because her skating at the Games was a thing of beauty. Perfection, even.
I don’t toss the “P” word around lightly, but I watched all three of her performances start-to-finish and couldn’t find – with my figure-skating expert’s eyes – a single instance in which she hesitated, slipped up, checked her balance, or faltered in any way, not even for a moment. She nailed every jump, spun every spin, and made every whatchamacallit look exactly like everyone knows that whatchamacallit is supposed to look. With a total score of 228.56, she broke her own world record by 18 points (which my bevy of figure skating knowledge tells me is a large margin).
But she did more than that. Every movement she made, every step, every turn, everything, seemed so effortless, so pure and smooth. So perfect. I’ve never seen anyone skate like that. Each aspect of her routines flowed into the next. There was no, “Oh, she’s preparing for a jump now,” or, “OK, here comes the spinny part.” She didn’t perform skating programs made up of component pieces – she painted Van Gogh-esque canvasses, played Mozart-worthy sonatas, and wrote Shakespearean sonnets on the ice.
Really, there are no words to describe the historic quality of Kim Yu-Na’s greatness, so I’m shutting up.
Trust me, though, it’s worth your time: Go watch the videos. Now.
Because that’s what Brian Boitano’d do.
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