2018-19 South Korean figure skating

[frida80]

Any confirmation that Young and Yelim will go senior next year? I’m sure Yelim is going, but I haven’t heard a thing about Young yet.

 

[Ichatdelune]

I thought Young would go up after Nats (three-times National champion in juniors feel weird), but now I'm not 100% sure. I think WC spots will affect the matter so

 

[Noxchild]

Seniors is going to be SO packed with debuts next year, I would not mind if Young and Yelim did mixed seasons (JGP + senior comps) since their chance of getting to JGPF is much higher than GPF. On the other, I wouldn't blame them for wanting to finally skate with the big girls Whatever their decision, I'll be excited to watch them skate!

 

[Ichatdelune]

Yelim is definitely going up (she did half and half for this season, remember), the question mark is for Young. I do think it depends on WC spots... (deep sigh) But still, next season Seoyeon is eligible for juniors, so the 05 girls (Haein, Seoyoung, Seoyeon) can be the new trio if Young does go up

 

[Ichatdelune]

Eunsoo got two spots back!! :hap57: That darling was under immense pressure and had an injury, but she managed to stay in the top 10 and got two spots back, I am utterly, wholeheartedly proud of her. Oh squirtle, whatever comes you did great at this Worlds

 

[believed]

Eunsoo got two spots back!! :hap57: That darling was under immense pressure and had an injury, but she managed to stay in the top 10 and got two spots back, I am utterly, wholeheartedly proud of her. Oh squirtle, whatever comes you did great at this Worlds

So so so happy for and proud of her!!!

 

[s_parks]

So proud of eunsoo at finishing top 10 in her senior debut, against the pressure and crazy events this worlds. Lots of hugs for her.

 

[Ichatdelune]

With two spots guaranteed, I think Young is going to go up. She and Eunsoo have been alternating 1-2 on the podium for quite some time now for both the ranking competition and Nats, if she goes to seniors she's the likeliest one (provided squirtle is going) to get the second spot. The trio battling it out in seniors, a concept that is both exciting and heartbreaking no matter the results

 

[DSQ]

If Young goes up Korea are likely to get three spots!!

 

[Mishaminion]

Eunsoo did great!
One fall and she looked disappointed but she got a Season's Best anyway. She should be very proud of herself, we all are.

 

[Ichatdelune]

If Young goes up Korea are likely to get three spots!!

I wouldn't say likely (Eteri's 3A is coming up, Elizabet Tursynbaeva just landed a quad, Japanese ladies are Japanese ladies, etc.), but it just, just might be possible with great skates and some luck That is, assuming that Young does come up

 

[Noxchild]

Whether both or only one of Young and Yelim go into seniors, it's lovely to see the post-Yuna boom producing so many wonderful young skaters from Korea, especially in Dabin's absence :sad21: I also hope dear Hanul Kim can make more of a splash, not to mention JGP bronze medallist Haein Lee! And of course Junhwan. I wonder when/if more Korean men are gonna emerge into the ranks.

Plus we'll see Min/Eaton next season - should be fun. Is there a SK pairs team? It still shocks me to think about how much of an ordeal it was for young Yuna to just be able to get ice time back in the day... hopefully there are more rinks now? And IDK why KSF has so many ranking competitions - what is the logic for not just using Nationals like everyone else? I'm not even sure FS is a big of a deal compared to like speed skating, so why do the skaters have to be tested internally so much...?

 

[Ichatdelune]

WC is over (well, gala's left, but competition's over), I am so relieved that Junhwan is finally, finally going to not have competitions for a while... Never mind the results, I can't stand watching him being tired even before he skates anymore, his health comes first over everything else. Please, please, please let him have fitting boots...

And to bring more stress on myself: Is ATS going to release a statement or not? I'm tired of being anxious about it all the time

 

[Ichatdelune]

On a less stressful topic: Wonder if Maxime Deschamps got released from the Canadian fed to compete for Korea, Kyueun's mother had said they were planning to for the 19/20 season and with Min/Eaton coming that means we (=South Korea) get all four disciplines. Training conditions are terrible for non-single skaters (sigh), but I'd love to see all four represented again.

Sorry for flooding the thread, but this is the only place on GS where I can talk about Korean skating freely

 

[Edwin]

What is the political and financial situation for figure skating in Korea?

Their athletes are doing very well in short track, are there no rinks with sufficient ice time for figure skating? No home grown trainers? No culture of ballet/dance that nurtures figure skating at its roots, i.e. brings lots of young boys and girls to the rinks to try??

Why do some figure skaters have 'managament' that provide for the substantial money to have KOR figure skaters, from kids to young teens, living and training abroad full time?

Are some parents so ambitious with their sons and daughters?
I have heard some commentators say Eeunson Lim trains for like 40+ hours a week and has almost no life outside figure skating and only sees her parents twice a year. Wether true or not, that seems quite cruel to me for a 15-16 year old girl.

 

[Ichatdelune]

(deep sigh) Hello, you must be new to Korean figure skating. To answer your questions, the short version is: KSU (Korean Fed) is utterly corrupt and incompetent, there is close to zero support for the skaters, and figure skating only took root after Yuna appeared out of nowhere and became the Queen. I assume you're thinking of Russia as the 'standard' way, well Korea can't be farther from that.

Long version answers, but please do take it with a grain of salt since I am only just a fan, and have been one only since the Queen and Vancouver.

- KSU is corrupt to the core, there are multiple issues for all three of short track, speed skating, and figure skating. Hell, for short track it has been revealed that the athletes were physically, mentally, and sexually abused by the coaches, and short track is the most successful and therefore most influential branch. Need I say more about the situation here.

- Funding does exist, but it's not really enough (winter sports are not that popular in Korea, and for skating sports the most successful, and therefore most popular one is short track) for the skaters to get what all they need. And sponsorship started happening after the Queen started winning everything (the companies that sponsored her, KB Bank most notably, started sponsoring figure skating competitions and skaters), so it's been about 10 years only. The skaters often have to personally pay for their training/supplies/etc, sometimes even if they get funding.

- When Yuna was a junior she had to practice in rinks made for short track skaters, there were no proper rinks back then. Now there are a few figure skating rinks, but not enough for the skaters to train freely. I've never skated so I don't know how crowded the rinks are, but I don't think the skaters have enough time or space.

- There are born-and-bred Korean trainers, the few skaters that existed before Yuna happened became the coaches. Some notable coaches include Coach Shin (the Queen's first (and after her break with Brian Orser, the subsequent) coach), Coach Chi (Eunsoo used to train with her before moving to California), Coach Lee (Dabin's coach during the Olympics), Coach Choi (Haneul's coach), Coach Han (coaches a lot of junior girls). They're all women by the way, there are few male coaches but none are the primary coaches of known/rising skaters. Korea not having male skaters date way back, see. And zero coaches for pairs. Since the Olympics there have been efforts to cultivate Ice Dance by this one person (forgot his name), he helped our only junior ID team form (both came over from singles). Their coach is a woman too, though (and not specializing in dance for what I know).

- Korea has some history of ballet (thanks to Kang Soojin and all), but ballet is not widely spread as in, say, Russia, and is considered a 'high' art that only a select few enjoy. And doing ballet in Korea is difficult in itself, so ballet-trained skaters are virtually non-existent. Same applies to artistic (i.e. non-pop) dancing. The roots for figure skating don't have strong roots here, mostly because they didn't arise naturally and were planted during colonialism and such, but that's a whole history thing that doesn't belong here.

- Management companies exist because 1)it makes it easier for sponsors to make contracts 2)once a skater is a known figure they are exposed to the media. They don't supply the money for the skaters to train abroad, their sponsors and/or their families do. The management company's job is to 1)help the skater gain sponsors 2)look after the skater's schedule and help provide the equipment 3)represent the skater for sponsor meetings/media attention, there's other things they do too but that's basically the most important things they do.

- Some parents are ambitious, yes. But most parents are just trying to support their child follow their dream, especially for elite skaters. You can't train in only Korea to reach your full potential, the environment and everything are insufficient. Eunsoo chose to move to California because for her talent to bloom she needed better. Her mother lives with her actually, it's her father (and her puppy) that she sees only once or twice a year (if that few, she does come to Korea for domestic competitions and there are too many of them). She trains for most of the week, yes, but that's only making optimum use of her time. She does have a life outside skating (she bakes, she goes shopping with her mother, etc), and most of all the lifestyle is of her choice. Same applies to Junhwan, he trains six days a week and only takes Sundays off to study (he's a senior in high school so he needs to), but he has said that the decision to do so is for him to become an athlete of a level that he desires to be.

This got long and I may have gotten some stuff wrong (please, other Korean skating fans, correct me if I did), but I tried to explain to the best of my extent.

 

[GoodMorningGrapeseed]

Junhwan’s condition visibly deteriorated after nationals and he’s so overworked. My heart aches for him. KSU keeps ruining their skaters’ careers.

 

[DSQ]

And to bring more stress on myself: Is ATS going to release a statement or not? I'm tired of being anxious about it all the time

Yes to this it’s stressing me out.

I’m hoping Orser might be able to do something about the number of competitions for Jun.

 

[Noxchild]

Eunsoo trains in California (for now) and as a minor, I'm like 99999% sure she is living with her mom, as most young athletes tend to do. She is likely taking online classes for school.

SK has had historically very few ice rinks, and pretty much any bio of Yuna Kim will tell you how she had go through ridiculous daily hurdles to be able to get ice time at an amusement park of all places (Lotte World, no?). Not to mention the KSU is notoriously corrupt and incompetent; despite speed skating being huge, they certainly don't give a fig if coaches abuse their skaters :dev2: The fact that they run so many domestic competitions to determine international spots and not just Nationals like every other country strongly suggests they don't care about figure skaters either and how damaging overworking can be :scowl: I wonder how much if any funding Jun and Eunsoo get from the KSU.

edit: Ichatdelune said everything already, disregard me!

 

[Edwin]

(deep sigh) Hello, you must be new to Korean figure skating. To answer your questions, the short version is: KSU (Korean Fed) is utterly corrupt and incompetent, there is close to zero support for the skaters, and figure skating only took root after Yuna appeared out of nowhere and became the Queen. I assume you're thinking of Russia as the 'standard' way, well Korea can't be farther from that.

Long version answers, but please do take it with a grain of salt since I am only just a fan, and have been one only since the Queen and Vancouver.

- KSU is corrupt to the core, there are multiple issues for all three of short track, speed skating, and figure skating. Hell, for short track it has been revealed that the athletes were physically, mentally, and sexually abused by the coaches, and short track is the most successful and therefore most influential branch. Need I say more about the situation here.

- Funding does exist, but it's not really enough (winter sports are not that popular in Korea, and for skating sports the most successful, and therefore most popular one is short track) for the skaters to get what all they need. And sponsorship started happening after the Queen started winning everything (the companies that sponsored her, KB Bank most notably, started sponsoring figure skating competitions and skaters), so it's been about 10 years only. The skaters often have to personally pay for their training/supplies/etc, sometimes even if they get funding.

- When Yuna was a junior she had to practice in rinks made for short track skaters, there were no proper rinks back then. Now there are a few figure skating rinks, but not enough for the skaters to train freely. I've never skated so I don't know how crowded the rinks are, but I don't think the skaters have enough time or space.

- There are born-and-bred Korean trainers, the few skaters that existed before Yuna happened became the coaches. Some notable coaches include Coach Shin (the Queen's first (and after her break with Brian Orser, the subsequent) coach), Coach Chi (Eunsoo used to train with her before moving to California), Coach Lee (Dabin's coach during the Olympics), Coach Choi (Haneul's coach), Coach Han (coaches a lot of junior girls). They're all women by the way, there are few male coaches but none are the primary coaches of known/rising skaters. Korea not having male skaters date way back, see. And
zero coaches for pairs. Since the Olympics there have been efforts to cultivate Ice Dance by this one person (forgot his name), he helped our only junior ID team form (both came over from singles). Their coach is a woman too, though (and not specializing in dance for what I know).

- Korea has some history of ballet (thanks to Kang Soojin and all), but ballet is not widely spread as in, say, Russia, and is considered a 'high' art that only a select few enjoy. And doing ballet in Korea is difficult in itself, so ballet-trained skaters are virtually non-existent. Same applies to artistic (i.e. non-pop) dancing. The roots for figure skating doesn't have strong roots here, mostly because they didn't arise naturally and was planted during colonialism and such, but that's a whole history thing that doesn't belong here.

- Management companies exist because 1)it makes it easier for sponsors to make contracts 2)once a skater is a known figure they are exposed to the media. They don't supply the money for the skaters to train abroad, their sponsors and/or their families do. The management company's job is to 1)help the skater gain sponsors 2)look after the skater's schedule and help provide the equipment 3)represent the skater for sponsor meetings/media attention, there's other things they do too but that's basically the most important things they do.

- Some parents are ambitious, yes. But most parents are just trying to support their child follow their dream, especially for elite skaters. You can't train in only Korea to reach your full potential, the environment and everything are insufficient. Eunsoo chose to move to California because for her talent to bloom she needed better. Her mother lives with her actually, it's her father (and her puppy) that she sees only once or twice a year (if that few, she does come to Korea for domestic competitions and there are too many of them). She trains for most of the week, yes, but that's only making optimum use of her time. She does have a life outside skating (she bakes, she goes shopping with her mother, etc), and most of all the lifestyle is of her choice. Same applies to Junhwan, he trains six days a week and only takes Sundays off to study (he's a senior in high school so he needs to), but he has said that the decision to do so is for him to become an athlete of a level that he desires to be.

This got long and I may have gotten some stuff wrong (please, other Korean skating fans, correct me if I did), but I tried to explain to the best of my extent.

Thanks for your elaborate answer, that sort of proves my thoughts and suspicions. Glad to learn the skaters living abroad have some familiar living with them and have a pet to cuddle and cry into. Of course, there are the daily Skype calls etc.

Short track skating teams are run by bookmakers I've read, i.e. people gamble on the matches. That sort of corrupts the short track skaters I think and by proxy the federation governing them.
My country, NED, is doing OK in short track, and I've seen a lot of coverage. KOR skaters have different tactic from ours, always lurking for their chance.