Yu-Na Kim

**brightphoton** · 10-20-2011, 10:59 AM

I like Michael Phelps because I saw him on the cover of Time Magazine wearing nothing but a speedo. I like Apolo Ohno because I saw him in ESPN's Body Issue wearing nothing but ice skates.

**Tonichelle** · 10-20-2011, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by Olympia

Short track skating was new to me a few Olympics ago, and on first viewing I remembered thinking, Wow, that's a way for opponents to cut one another to ribbons. It immediately went on my list of sports not to watch, along with football, mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, and anything with cars. It's so aggressive that I don't understand how one person can be considered rougher than any other. They'd all have to be steamrollers to compete. This is the kind of sport that makes me grateful for ice dancing and track and field.

My testimonial about what I think of short track skating.

then don't try to get into watching mushing. watching a musher on the back of a little sled being pulled by 16 amped up dogs down a gorge is entertaining to me, but I don't think you'd like the many CRASHES they end up doing. Last year Rick Swenson broke his collarbone in his fall... the crashes are incredible and death defying (so far) most get up and shake it off... I love football, some of the tackles are spectacular. I'm not a fan of the car races or their crashes, it's a bit too deadly for me... I also don't enjoy watching the crashes that some skaters have had. *shrugs* takes all kinds... but, yeah, when I start gushing about the Iditarod next March don't watch lol

**Olympia** · 10-21-2011, 08:51 PM

Tonichelle, I'll try to keep in mind what you say about mushing! I love the idea of it but had no idea it was as rough to watch as that. You have correctly pegged me as a chicken. I'll depend on your reports about the exploits of the mushers and the dogs rather than watching firsthand.

**Figga** · 10-21-2011, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by os168

If we start to take for granted and accept the view that bad behaviour of the few is a representation of an entire race, then the world would be a horrendous easily manipulated place for right wingers, racists, nationalist, or people with ulterior motives.

Yes, we are in complete agreement here.

**jatale** · 10-22-2011, 10:56 AM

Excuse me, but isn't this thread supposed to be about Yuna? This thread has been hijacked and this debate about Ohno etc. should be moved to some separate thread.

**prettykeys** · 10-22-2011, 11:11 AM

This thread is very long and has been hijacked countless number of times. But I agree, it's time to move on from this topic.

**EricRohmer** · 10-22-2011, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by Figga

Nope. I think it's obvious that I'm not saying that at all. I'm addressing the mindless Korean nationalists here. If Ohno wasn't who he was, such Koreans wouldn't be holding such a stupid grudge. Because let's get real here, Koreans don't really care about short track skating either.

This is similar to saying 'I am an American figure fan and so know them well. American figure fans don't really care about Kwan. Trust me.'

(Yes, because this is a Yuna thread...)
Yuna cheering for the Korean short track team in Vancouver.
http://pds.joinsmsn.com/news/compone...400f6a-001.jpg
http://imgnews.naver.com/image/001/2...0001300_P2.jpg

**Figga** · 10-22-2011, 10:37 PM

OK so I lied. This will be my final thoughts on this, I promise.

lowtherlore, I don't even know why I have to repeat this but please get this through your head. Nowhere have I said that only Koreans are overly nationalistic. Sorry for not including that in my original but that's such an obvious statement that I didn't feel the need to stick it in there as some sort of disclaimer. And sorry to break it to you, but I am Korean. I just have a different point of view than yours. And I'm hardly the only one. Apparently, we're just not as vocal as you.

**Olympia** · 10-23-2011, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by lowtherlore

To expand my view on nationalism in Japan, can you imagine the international outcry and condemnation Germans would face if their leaders and public pay tributes to the tombs of Nazi war criminals? If that happen, they would have no business in participating in international sporting events, let alone hosting them.

I don't want to get involved in this particular argument, but something like this actually happened in the 1980s. When Reagan was the U.S. President, he went to Germany for an economic summit and arranged to visit a cemetery at Bitburg, where the assumption that both American and German soldiers were buried. He would be accompanied by German chancellor Helmut Kohl. It turned out that no American soldiers were buried there, but members of the Waffen SS were. Talk about an uproar! Everyone, even Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, weighed in, begging the President not to go there. I remember feeling extremely agitated that such a thing could occur and that Reagan didn't seem concerned about the symbolic effect of his visit. It was a tremendous tangle for quite a while, and I'm sure some people never forgave Reagan for making such a plan.

I like to hope that someday, we'll be able to bridge such gaps in the world, not forgetting history but rising above it.

**cooper** · 10-26-2011, 07:59 PM

http://www.yunacollection.com/

new yuna products the official launching will be on october 28 in korea

**Tonichelle** · 10-27-2011, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by Olympia

Tonichelle, I'll try to keep in mind what you say about mushing! I love the idea of it but had no idea it was as rough to watch as that. You have correctly pegged me as a chicken. I'll depend on your reports about the exploits of the mushers and the dogs rather than watching firsthand.

I was just scaring you - by about the fourth day of the race the crashes have ended and it's just cold and wind and sleep depravation

I'll tell you when to hide your eyes and when it's safe to looka gain lol

**Olympia** · 10-27-2011, 10:10 PM

Thanks, Tonichelle! I'll cover my eyes when instructed by you. (>giggle<)

My respect for the dogs and the mushers is boundless. I got to edit an article for kids about the original trek to Nome in 1925 with the serum, which inspired the Iditarod, and I still get gooseflesh when I think about those men and their dogs, setting off in temperatures of forty below, in the dark, over hundreds of miles of ice--in January! I know I tend to romanticize things (which is why I'm a skating fan). But this sport deserves to be romanticized. I gather that the mushers tend to live very down-to-earth lives, mostly in out-of-the-way locales in Alaska and Minnesota and such, and they're certainly not in it for the money. It's great to know there's a knowledgeable musher fan in the GS community.