South Korea’s Kim Yuna shrugged off the weight of expectation from her homeland to win figure skating gold on Thursday but Canada’s Joannie Rochette won most hearts by overcoming heavy personal grief to claim a bronze medal.
An extraordinary day of raw human emotion and unrelenting drama at the Vancouver Winter Olympics also saw Norwegian cross country skier Marit Bjoergen become the first triple gold medallist of the Games and Canada win the women’s ice hockey to join Germany and the United States at the top of the medal standings.
The Canadians beat the U.S. 2-0 to trigger wild celebrations at Canada Hockey Place—and add to the suffocating pressure on the men’s team to emulate their feat in the final event of the Games on Sunday.
It was the evening figure skating, however, which provided Thursday’s icing on the cake after another day of enthralling action on all competition arenas.
Yuna, 19, showed poise and grace beyond her tender years to win the women’s figure skating gold with a record total of 228.56 points, well clear of Japan’s Mao Asada, who finished second, and Rochette, who maintained her composure to win the bronze just four days after her mother suddenly died.
“I do not see myself as a hero. When I stepped on to the ice I knew I had to be as cold as possible. My legs were shaking but my mother was there with me, giving me strength,” an emotional Rochette told reporters.
“It was almost like a relief going on the ice. I needed to be in a state of mind where I was Joannie the athlete and not Joannie the person. I was shaking but I knew that I would leave everything on that ice.”

Joannie Rochette (Amy Sancetta)

ROYAL APPROVAL
Earlier, Bjoergen, 29, skied the last leg of the 4x5km relay in front of a packed grandstand where Norway’s King Harald V was watching. She grabbed a Norwegian flag and skied without using poles in the final few metres to her fourth podium finish in four events.
“This has been so great. I had a dream of winning one gold medal and now I have three so this has been a wonderful Games for me,” said Bjoergen.
With three in the top four after Wednesday’s first run, the Austrians had looked set to win their first Olympic gold in the Alpine events at Whistler mountain but again came up short.
German Viktoria Rebensburg unexpectedly won the women’s giant slalom, which was delayed 24 hours because of fog, after her parents had flown home following Wednesday’s opening leg when she was in sixth place.
Elisabeth Goergl was first after the opening leg but found a soft course on the second run and ended up with her second bronze of the Games.
The silver went to Slovenia’s Tina Maze, who finished just 0.04 seconds behind Rebensburg, a former junior world champion yet to win a World Cup race on the senior circuit.
Rebensburg weaved her way to the front with a dazzling second run to become Germany’s first women’s giant slalom champion in 54 years and second youngest Alpine gold medallist.
“It sounds so strange, it’s unbelievable,” she said. “I think it’s going to take a few days for me to realise it.”

TWO GOALS
After Finland beat Sweden 3-2 to claim the women’s ice hockey bronze medal, Canadian forward Marie-Philip Poulin scored both goals in the first period of the final against the U.S.
Canada’s men, watching from the stands, play Slovakia in Friday’s men’s semi-finals while the U.S. face off against Finland, setting up the possibility of a dream north American final on Sunday.
On the curling rink, Canada’s women continued to clean up, advancing to the final against Sweden by beating Switzerland in a tense semi.
The Canadian men also booked their place in the final with a 6-3 win over Sweden to extend their unbeaten run. They next play Norway, who have developed a cult following in Vancouver with their diamond-print pants.
Belarus collected their first Winter Olympic gold when Alexei Grishin won the men’s freestyle aerials at Cypress Mountain. Jeret Peterson of the U.S. took silver and China’s Liu Zhongqing the bronze.
American Bill Demong won gold in the Nordic combined as the U.S., Germany and Canada ended the 13th full day of competition with eight golds each and the U.S. ahead on overall medals.
Away from the ice and snow, the U.S. Olympic Committee confirmed that American bobsleigh crew member Bill Schuffenhauer had been arrested and then released to compete in Friday’s event.
Vancouver police had earlier said a U.S. Olympian had been arrested on Wednesday for assaulting his common law partner but did not name him.
A South Korean man was arrested too in Seoul for threatening to blow up the Australian Embassy after an Australian judge disqualified the South Korean women’s short track team on Wednesday.

source: sports.yahoo.com

Kim Yuna of South Korea leads after the short program of the women’s figure skating event on Tuesday at the Vancouver Olympics. Yuna, who skated to a James Bond medley, scored 78.50 points.
Mao Asada of Japan is in second place with 73.78 points after she skated to the “Waltz Masquerade” by Aram Khatchaturian.
Canada’s Joannie Rochette, whose mother passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on Sunday, received a lengthy standing ovation after she finished. She skated to “La Cumparsita” and received 71.36 points, putting her in third place.
Miki Ando of Japan skated to “Requiem” by Mozart and finished with 64.76 points, good for fourth place.
Rachael Flatt of the U.S., skating to “Sing Sing Sing,” is in fifth place with 64.64 points
Mirai Nagasu of the U.S., skating to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” soundtrack, is in sixth place with 63.76 points. Her nose started bleeding midway through her performance.
“Halfway there I felt stuff running down my nose and thinking ‘don’t think about it just keep going.’ My performance tonight wasn’t as good as nationals, I’m a little disappointed but I think the next Olympics I’ll know how to feel.”

Photo: Kim Yuna of South Korea competes during the short program Tuesday night. Credit: Richard Mackson / U.S. Presswire

source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Kim is from South Korea.

So not only do you have two Asian nations with a legion of pony-tailed pipsqueaks rushing to the nearest rink, but you also have two Asian nations that don’t exactly care for one another and consider no greater ignominy than to lose to the other in anything. You have plenty of little girls dreaming of becoming an ice queen, and plenty of money and motivation to cultivate them.
Entering the 2006 Games, Asian women had won two figure skating medals — a silver by Japan’s Midori Ito in 1992 and a bronze by China’s Chen Lu in 1994. Now Asian women are forecast to sweep the podium this week and claim gold for the second straight Games while a U.S. team led by Del Mar’s Rachael Flatt is not expected to win a ladies single medal for the first time since 1964.
“The conclusion is that I was right,” said Ottavio Cinquanta, the Italian president of the International Skating Union who a decade ago pushed to promote Asian skating by sending more high-level events there. “Countries have understood skating is a sport for Asian athletes, better than basketball or soccer.”
It makes sense for all disciplines of figure skating — the bronze here by Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi was the first Asian to medal in men’s singles, and China went 1-2-5 in pairs — but especially with the women, the sport’s marquee event.
You have a massive female population with small physiques, low-fat diets, an increased emphasis on jumps since the elimination of school figures in 1990, and little dilution of the talent pool by other women’s sports. And perhaps something else.
“I think the Asian population — including Japanese, Chinese, Koreans — has respect for the aged, respect for the elderly,” Japanese national coach Nobuhiko Yoshioka said yesterday. “They will practice and do whatever their teacher or coach tells them to do. Perhaps that’s what has enabled these young athletes to diligently and seriously embody what they are told to do.”
“This is the type of sport that in the past the Anglo-Saxons, the Caucasians, were very adept at. Now the Asian population is very adept at it.”
Russia’s Nikolai Morozov concurs. He coaches Japan’s Miki Ando, the 2007 world champion who was the first woman to land a quadruple jump in competition.
“Japanese skaters have a very good body structure for skating,” Morozov told Japanese media last month. “They have a little bit lower center of gravity. So it’s much easier for them to jump.

Miki Ando

“And Japanese have great discipline, so when you tell them what to do, they just listen and do it. Americans (who are) 15, 16 years old won’t do this. They want to go out. They want to go to the movies.”
Of the last nine women’s medals at the annual World Championship, Asian women won seven. Kim’s toughest (and maybe only) competition here is thought to be Ando or Mao Asada, the 2008 world champion who plans to do the elusive triple axel in both her short (Tuesday) and free (Thursday) programs. Akiko Suzuki, the third member of Japan’s team, finished third at the Grand Prix final and is considered a medal contender as well.
The real impact, however, might not be felt for another decade, when all those girls idolizing Kim and Asada and Ando fill all the rinks being built.
Kim is considered South Korea’s most famous athlete, with an annual $8 million endorsement empire that includes Nike, Hyundai, a bank, electronics firms, a jewelry line, even a bakery. Samsung launched a special “Yu-na” touch-screen mobile phone last spring and sold a reported 500,000 in the first 80 days. A major department store chain orders branches to play her short and free program music at least 20 times a day to put shoppers in a good mood.
Asada was considered the queen of figure skating four years ago but missed the Olympic age cutoff by three months. Now that she’s here, a South Korean is favored to win the gold.
Kim, Asada recently said, “has been a good source of inspiration for me.”

source: www.signonsandiego.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhfzqTmhKqk