Stuff Waygooks Like #3 - Kim Yu-na (김연아)

An easy pick.  Who doesn't like Kim Yu-na?  Well... except maybe Japanese figure skating fans...

Kim Yu-na is the 2010 Olympic Champion in ladies singles and she was the 2009 World Champion.  She is the first Korean figure skater to win a medal at the Olympic games.  This has easily made her the most recognizable Korean athlete in the world.

Why do waygooks like her so much?  Same reason everyone else does.  She is gorgeous.  She is strong and dedicated.  She has amazing talent and grace and with her record setting performance in the Olympic games she has arguably made the greatest physical achievement by any Korean athlete ever.  Sorry Korean short track speed skating fans...

She was born in 1990 and is from Gyeonggi-do Province.  She began skating at the age of seven.  In 2002, at the age of twelve, she won the senior title at the South Korean Figure Skating Championships, becoming the youngest skater ever to win that title.  As her potential was realized by the international skating community, she moved to Canada in 2006 and began training with former figure skater Brian Orser.  His coaching took her to a new level.

Between 2008 and 2010, Yu-na did not become known for winning so much as the way she won events.  She crushed her opposition sometimes winning by over twenty points in a sport that usually considers a spread of five points to be dominant.  Nobody could compete with her level of performance in the world events leading up to the 2010 Olympic games.

On February 26th of 2010, Kim Yu-na made history with her long program piling up a score of 150.06 which was enough to easily secure the gold medal and break her own previously held world record.  NBC is pretty fascist about letting people see footage of their coverage, but I found a video of her Olympic Free Skate performance.  It is blurry, but if you want to see it here it is.

Perhaps her most memorable routine for waygooks was to a James Bond melody.  She performed it at the 2009 Skate America.  Dang... she's awesome.

Her success on the ice has also made here a multi-millionaire in endorsements.  She has endorsement deals with Hyundai Motor Company, Kookim Bank, Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Korean Air, Anycall Mobile Phones, Hauzen Air Conditioning, Lac Vert Cosmetics, Maeil Dairies Company, Saffron Fabric Softener, Tous Les Jours Bakery, J. Estina Jewelry, Qua Apparel & Samsung Electronics.  If you live in Korea, it is probably impossible to leave your home without walking past a poster or billboard of Kim Yu-na trying to sell you something.  Koreans love her though, so she is probably worth every penny.

Here is a clip of her advertising shoot for Tous Les Jours Bakery.  She looks so cute and seems really nice.  She definitely looks like she has a fun personality.

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