Kim Yuna’s silver medal and Bonaly’s backflipping

Here is a simple reason perfectly summarized to explain why Queen Kim Yuna only earned silver in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics’ ladies’ singles in figure skating: The judges considered her performance lacking technique-wise. It is not a matter of whether Kim really was less technically sophisticated than Adelina Sotnikova of Russia, who ended up winning gold back then. It all comes down to the fact that the judges determined the results.

The reason behind controversy over the judges’ mentioning of Kim’s level of technical completion is that Kim came across outstandingly excellent in the artistic aspects of her performance. Even overseas media outlets such as NBC of the United States commented that the results seemed unconvincing because Kim’s artistic prowess would never have been defeated by Sotnikova even if this Russian skater had excelled technically.

Likewise, the reason Surya Bonaly only ended up being a three-time World silver medalist from 1993 to 1995, even with the first ratified quad by a female skater, can be summarized into this single line: The judges considered her performance not outstanding artistically. Bonaly, a rare figure skater who is black, said that her medal color would have been changed if she had a different skin color. This gymnast-turned-skater had larger muscles than other skaters.

Unfortunately, she injured an ankle in the run-up to the 1988 Nagano Winter Olympics, the last Olympic games of her career. As a result, she could not even complete a triple jump, not to mention a quad. She was supposed to do a triple lutz at the end of the free skating program but surprisingly landed a backflip involving a 360-degree turn mid-air.

Not until last Friday’s congress did the International Skating Union overturn a ban on backflip jumps, citing the need to make figure skating friendly and modern. With such a significant change made after the ISU had its first non-European President in its 130-year history, it is hoped that figure skating will ensure open-mindedness and fairness for the sake of “non-mainstream” players as well.