Yu-Na Kim does 500+ sit-ups a day...

[clonesheep]

According to this article

http://english.kbs.co.kr/society/people/1377374_11774.html

Yu-Na does over 500 sit-ups and runs 6 km everyday. Is that typical for the daily training for a skater? Anyway it does seem to pay off.

 

[R.D.]

there was a similar article on Kimmie about her training routine...pretty intense when you consider that it's only ice skating.

 

[Fossi]

So did Britney Spears for awhile and then she had 2 babies.

She's 13 and in third grade? Can someone explain the school system in Korea?

 

[bruised]

She's 13 and in third grade? Can someone explain the school system in Korea?

Lol, I think she's 15.

The school is Dojang Middle School, so maybe, just MAYBE she's in the third year of that middle school... I'm not sure. I don't live in Korea and I'm not Korean. =P

 

[iloveaxel]

So did Britney Spears for awhile and then she had 2 babies.

She's 13 and in third grade? Can someone explain the school system in Korea?

She's pretty much home schooling just like a lot of other top American skating kids according to her own account.

 

[Mathman]

As for Kim's training regimen, all athletes kill themselves like that. If they didn't, they'd be blown out by the kids that did.

 

[Spun Silver]

No wonder she looks so unhappy. What a miserable life. No time for friends or play, no snacks, no normal education, horrible pain....

The cost of that perfection is too high. I will be glad for her when she gets out of the sport.

 

[R.D.]

yeah, maybe. But I have no doubt she'll be a gold-medal ***** and build up some stash to keep her consoled. :yes:

There's nothing like that OGM. Tara killed her hips to get it and she even said she has no regrets.

 

[mizu_iro]

Lol, I think she's 15.

The school is Dojang Middle School, so maybe, just MAYBE she's in the third year of that middle school... I'm not sure. I don't live in Korea and I'm not Korean. =P

Yes, by third grade it's the third year of MIDDLE school, so it's the equivalent of 9th grade in America.

 

[fscric]

No wonder she looks so unhappy. What a miserable life. No time for friends or play, no snacks, no normal education, horrible pain....

The cost of that perfection is too high. I will be glad for her when she gets out of the sport.

I don't get the feeling that she looks unhappy this year. I think she looks much happier and she enjoys her programmes this year, that's what I get from watching her performance and her reaction after each skate. I agree she didn't look happy at all last year.

 

[Kati]

Lol, I think she's 15.

Yu-Na is sixteen years old, born in September 1990.
She's lovely. I really like her LP this year. What an artist, and she makes the jumps and spins look so easy! The music suits her very well. It's nice that all the skaters don't pick the same pieces of music - classical, opera, or well-known soundtracks.

 

[blueham]

No wonder she looks so unhappy. What a miserable life. No time for friends or play, no snacks, no normal education, horrible pain....

The cost of that perfection is too high. I will be glad for her when she gets out of the sport.

Yu Na is 16 years old and will be in 11th grade in high school next March. She is just a cheerful young girl who likes to post pictures of her own and meet friends online--at Korean version Myspace.
But when skating, she almost always keep her composure and seems quite reserved --maybe that's why I couldn't really see impressive facial expressions from her last year. But as many people agree, Yu Na has changed since then and I see she definitely loves to skate, even with those 500 situps and running or whatever.

 

[Mathman]

I agree with fscrit and blueham. This article was actually written more than a year ago. For some reason there were several newspaper stories at that time that pictured Yu-na as a poor little woe-is-me victim, everyone is forcing me to be a skater, I don't have any friends, I just train, train, train all the time. There was a famous quote to the effect that, "my only treat is that once every six months I get to go to the movies." There was a lot of discussion on the Internet about how scandalous it was that she wasn't going to regular school at the time.

This image was compunded when she went to Canada to train for a while. There, she was shy and homesick, she did not speak English well, and a lot of people interpreted that as her being unhappy with her life as an elite skater.

I think all that was greatly exagerated. I think she's just like all the other kids in the sport. Yes, they work hard and they make sacrifices. They also have unique opportunitites and experiences. It's a trade-off.

 

[bubbleyum]

actually,

regarding yuna as being a poor little high school girl who never gets to go out etc etc, that is not because she is an athlete. i went to korean schools growing up (a loooong time ago, hah), and school is very very strict. they're supposed to do nothing but study all day, from morning till 2-3am sometimes. i think i've been out to the movies maybe 3 times in the 6 years that i went to middle school and high school. she would have that life even if she weren't a skater. she actually gets to do more, since she flies around to different countries etc, instead of being cooped up in school all day.

although, i guess she would be able to have more snacks and not do 500 situps a day!

 

[hsj2136]

So did Britney Spears for awhile and then she had 2 babies.

She's 13 and in third grade? Can someone explain the school system in Korea?

I'm Korean, and I can explain the school system in Korea. In Korea, there are 3 steps to finish secondary education. Those are elementary, middle and high school. Yu-na was (at that time) 13 and she was in third grade of middle school. Now, do you get it??

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

There's nothing like that OGM. Tara killed her hips to get it and she even said she has no regrets.

Now that the stardust has faded and the acting career is not-so-easy, I wonder if she could go back in time, would she do it differently?

 

[nymkfan51]

I wonder the same thing, Joe ... not that I think she would ever say she regrets it.(even if she did)
I wonder if she will feel differently when she's 40 and has trouble getting out of bed in the morning.