You're free to disagree all you want, but if you read more carefully what I wrote, jaylee, I said, ‘I feel that that decision was greatly influenced by what Korean onlookers were saying about her’ and not the controversy itself. It’s obvious to me that Yuna greatly cares about what Korean people think of her just by looking at what happened last month and those kinds of comments made by the Korean onlookers weren’t exclusive to the last month’s controversy, btw, ‘cause it has been over a year since Yuna has competed in skating competitions. Thus, it’s only natural for people who follow her casually to think she spent most of her off-year, especially the latter part, endorsing various products and attending events that had little or at all to do with figure skating.
Again, why was
what Korean "onlookers" said about her lately any worse than what was said
about her during controversies in the past (some which were way worse than anything that happened in the last year)? It wasn't. Therefore, why would Yu-Na care so much that it triggered a decision to commit herself to full-time training and competing for
2 years?
I didn't miss what you said about the decision being influenced by Korean onlookers and what they said about her and not the controversy itself, but that's a very minor distinction (what they said about her was triggered by the controversy, so it is impossible to separate the two). I also don't see much justification for why you believe she was "greatly influenced" by the Korean people. Yu-Na appreciates their support, and at times had expressed a need for distance from them, but I don't recall that she was ever greatly influenced by them in her major decision making or goal setting in the past. She made it clear in her pursuit of the OGM that she was skating for herself first--and some people actually took that quote out of context to assume she didn't care about her country.
I don’t think I ever said that Yuna is not allowed to change her mind. I can have opinions just like you can, can’t I?
I don't think I ever said you couldn't state your opinion. I just said I disagree, and as you say, I have the right to disagree. And you have the right to disagree back, etc.
Sure Katarina Witt retired and came back to compete at her third Olympics on her own will, but wasn’t she forced to compete at her second Olympics by the gov’t of her country against her will? East Germany was a communist country in 1988, no?
South Korea is not a communist country, so your point is...?
I doubt that she had any other choice than to train for her second Olympics. Anyways, it matters little to me who retired and came back as I only said what I did about Yuna because I know what she said well. I followed her interviews just like any of her other fans did and it was just last year when she said she doesn’t even want to think about competing again without mentioning anything about the pressure other people put on her for her to win in one of her documentaries. She has also said that the idea of her trying out for her second Olympics seemed unimaginable to an interviewer ‘cause it gets particularly difficult for female skaters to perform their best even if they are in their early 20s.
Yu-Na faced unbearable pressure going into the 2010 Olympics for more than a year, but she never walked away from it, no matter what her struggles were. She had a goal and a plan and she stuck to it. She needed a break after the Olympics and she's had it. It's not unimaginable that with that long break, she's found some time to breathe and recuperate and prepare mentally, and feels she can face that pressure again.
As someone who speaks Korean fluently, I don’t think I was exaggerating her dislike of competition at all as I have already mentioned my reasons above as clearly as I can. The fact of the matter is that many of Yuna's skating fans expected her to retire until she announced her decision yesterday because she has plainly expressed that she hates the thought of competing again on more than one occasion. If she has ever expressed like Michelle Kwan did who has often expressed her love of performing in competitions, I would not have been surprised by her decision to return to competitions at all. Maybe I didn’t follow her interviews enough like you must’ve done, but I don’t recall her ever talking about her enjoying the atmosphere of competitions. I’ve heard plenty of times her saying she enjoys skating at ice shows and watching men’s competitions, but not much about her enjoying competing.
Again, you're extrapolating and generalizing a bit too much. She doesn't love the intense expectation that she win all the time. That's not to say that she hates competing all the time, ever. As I said, she enjoys many other side benefits of competing. She always said her dream was to be a skater who will be remembered, who will touch your heart. She couldn't achieve that dream, or the dream of being an Olympic champion, without competing.
Michelle said she loved competing, but there were times when it certainly looked like she didn't. When she wept after coming off the ice for the 1998 Olympics FS? How about 2002 Olympics? Yes, she said she loved competing, but she took breaks as well, skipping the GP in 1998-1999 (and in later seasons). A skater who says she loves competing doesn't love every moment of it. A skater who says she dislikes the pressure of competition enjoys other aspects of competing.
). It's the offseason, people are going to speculate on what this could mean and what could happen.
