Tearful Kim Yu-na falters at world championships

Kim Yu-na burst into tears, and could not stop.

The Olympic figure skating champion, 21, stood on the winners’ podium at Moscow`s Megasport Arena, the venue of the women’s single free skating competition of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships Saturday. She finished second but looked joyful. She soon burst into tears, however, and could not stop crying.

Kim received 194.50 overall points including 128.59 in free skating after earning 65.91 in the short program Friday. She lost the title by 1.29 points to Miki Ando of Japan, who received 195.79 points including 130.21 in free skating.

Kim made two critical mistakes. She received 1.6 bonus points by doing a perfect triple lutz–triple toe loop combination jump, a technique she messed up on Saturday, but did just one spin in the latter part of the triple salchow-double toe loop combination jump (basic score of 5.6 points), and saw her basic point reduced to 4.6 points. She also did one spin in the triple flip jump (basic score of 5.3 points), and earned just the basic score of half a point.

She uncharacteristically made mistakes in jumps apparently because of her 13-month hiatus. After the competition, Kim said, “I felt nervous. I hesitated in flip jumps as well due to shivering legs,” adding, “It could be because of my hiatus but I`m not completely sure.”

Making her program public also negatively affected her. Unlike other competitors, referees saw Kim’s program for the first time this season. Generally, referees use a skater’s first competition of the season as criteria for judging the skater. Using the first tournament as an indicator, they make judgment calls whether to give bonus or penalty points.

For Kim, they had no performance to refer to in judging. A figure skating source said, “Referees usually give low scores in the first competition, and Kim is believed to have been put at a disadvantage in this regard.”

Kim also failed to receive bonus points for her perfect jumps. She would get at least one bonus point normally or as many as two, but earned one or more bonus points three times in free skating.

In contrast, Ando received one or more bonus points four times.

creating@donga.com