“Looking back on this season, I think there were so many good moments. I know how disappointing the World Championship was, but I kept thinking that I shouldn’t underestimate my hard work with just one tournament.”
The 2022-2023 season of ‘Figure Skating General’ Kim Ye-rim (20, Dankook University) was eventful. At the age of 20, which is not a small number for a female singles player, she had a ‘great season’, but the tower she built with so much effort seemed to collapse with just one tournament.
In her last season, Kim Ye-rim competed in a total of nine international competitions. Throughout the season she traveled around the world and her medal count was a whopping 7 (3 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze). She was the most medalist in Korean figure skating women’s singles competition in a single season.
However, at the World Championships, which should have been the brightest, the shadow of misfortune struck. Her back injury and poor form, which plagued her Kim Ye-rim throughout her season, forced her to accept her worst performance of the year, 18th.
Her steps, which had been walking without a chance to catch her breath, seemed to be unraveling. However, compared to other seasons, her final destination was still to be seen. For the first time, Korean figure skaters participated in the International Skating Union (ISU) World Team Trophy, a national team competition. The ‘Figure Skating General’, who proudly stood on the ice as a representative of Korea, was resurrected splendidly.
SpotTV News met Kim Ye-rim, who is preparing for the next season, at the Taereung Indoor Ice Rink in Nowon-gu, Seoul. Kim Ye-rim, whose expression became brighter with her World Team Trophy silver medal, ran on the ice with light movements.
After finishing her World Team Trophy, Kim Ye-rim returned home from Japan, where the tournament was held on the 24th of last month. The next day she was injured straight away from the hospital. After a back exam she was admitted and underwent surgery. He was discharged on the 27th and has yet to attempt a jump considering his physical condition.
The World Team Trophy, his first appearance, was Kim Ye-rim’s ‘resurrection stage’. In the women’s single free skating event held on the 14th of last month, she scored 143.59 points, the best of the season and personal best. After the slump in the world championships, she shed tears after the game, probably because she suffered more than anyone else.
“After the World Championships, I was shocked and really upset and had a hard time. That’s why the process of preparing for the team trophy was not easy. But I didn’t want to bother the other players and I didn’t want to give up on the competition. I wanted to do my best as much as I could. .”
Men’s singles representatives Lee Si-hyung (23, Korea University) and Kyung Jae-seok (23), who visited Saitama, Japan, where the World Championship cheering event was held, gave strength to Kim Ye-rim’s sagging shoulders. ” Rather,
(the older brothers) didn’t bother talking about competitions or games. They tried to make me feel better with everyday stories and funny jokes.”
Aimed at restoring honor. And this season, the program that was completed with hard work was perfected and reaped the beauty of the end.
Team Korea’s teamwork brought closer through camp training at the Jincheon National Training Center, shining brilliantly at the World Team Trophy.
As her nickname, ‘Figure Skating General’, Kim Ye-rim, who has an easy-going personality, has a strong friendship with male singles players. When I asked Kim Ye-rim, who grew up as an only child, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have older brothers like that?”, he answered with a smile, “It must have been fun.”
“I have an easy-going personality and I’m not afraid of being broken in front of my older brothers (laughs). I was really close with my national teammates before, but more than that, the training camp in Jincheon National Training Center was a great opportunity. Except for sleeping time, when exercising I saw things I hadn’t seen while spending personal time together while eating meals with him, and we became close like family.”
At the World Team Trophy, Team Korea cheered on their teammates with various cheers. It was a scene that couldn’t come out without being really close. Kim Ye-rim not only achieved his best performance last season, but also gained a closer ‘comradeship’.
In the meantime, figure skaters lacked a ‘play culture’ to spend their leisure time. However, as they enjoyed playing table tennis, their relationship deepened. When asked about her table tennis skills, Kim Ye-rim laughed, saying, “I’m the best.”
“(Cha) Junhwan said that he and I were the best, but in fact, Junhwan has never beaten me. It was a trigger.”
The masterpiece ‘Summer of 1942’, born after childbirth, is a life program. It
is a program that proves everything a figure skater is. The completed program, which combines the technical element (TES) score and the program component (PCS) score, is evaluated as a ‘work’, not just a feast of technology.
In her younger days, Kim Ye-rim showed her greatest inferiority in ‘her expressiveness’ compared to her competitors of her age. Active on the senior stage in earnest from the 2019-2020 season, he has already spent his fourth senior season.
The experience of participating in major international competitions and presenting various programs has already borne fruit. In particular, the free skating program movie ‘Summer of 42’ OST, which he played on countless stages in the 2022-2023 season, became a milestone in his figure skating career.
This program has excellent choreography that tightly fills in the blanks between various jumps and technical elements. In particular, Kim Ye-rim spurred the completion of the program by showing fingertip acting, stroking, and twizzles that exuded the feeling of a senior player.
“Actually, when I made the program last season, the short program (Mercy) went smoothly, but the free skating was a bit problematic. I didn’t like the arrangement at first, so I struggled a lot with the choreographer, David Wilson (Canada). In the end, I asked for my own song and arranged it. I decided to give it a try, but it became the final version. It was born after a lot of thought and twists and turns. Maybe it’s because a lot of sincerity went into it, and it became my life’s program, and I think it will remain forever as I finished it with the feeling I received from the last game (World Team Trophy Free Skating).”
‘Summer of 1942’, completed by choreographer David Wilson, was re-arranged with a newly created song by composer Carl Hugo during the season. Born after childbirth, this work flapped its wings to Kim Ye-rim’s revival.
In the 2023-2024 season, Jeffrey Buttle (Canada, Short) and Wilson will be responsible for choreographing his program. Not a few players, including Cha Jun-hwan of the men’s singles last season, garnered attention by presenting popular pop songs.
When asked if he would like to try a new transformation, Kim Ye-rim said, “I don’t have the confidence to sing that kind of song at a game yet, but I’m thinking of doing it at a gala.” He added, “I have no intention of making any major changes yet because lyrical and classical music suits me well.”
In the history of Korean figure skating, ‘Kim Ye-rim’s first’ has also been newly created… Although she is over 20 years old, her passion has not cooled down.
So far, when discussing the history of figure skating in Korea, Yuna Kim (33) has a very strong presence. The footsteps of Yuna Kim, who pioneered every path, had a great influence on the athletes who were influenced by her.
Kim Yu-na left the official competition after the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. And at an ice show held in the spring of that year, he officially announced his retirement.
Almost 10 years have passed since Yuna Kim left the ice. Many of his juniors challenged themselves on the international stage, and the number of medals gradually increased. And in the 2022-2023 season, a player who swept seven medals in international competitions appeared. Kim Ye-rim became the senior female singles player who won the most medals in a single season international competition in Korean figure skating history. 5 medals)
Also, Kim Ye-rim was the first male and female singles to win two consecutive victories in the ISU Certified Challenger Tournament and the NHK Grand Prix Trophy. Here she is Here At the Winter World University Games (U Competition), she reached the podium (bronze medal) for the first time in women’s singles history.
It was a waste to erase these achievements due to the sluggishness of the World Championships. Kim Ye-rim said, “Looking back on this season, there were so many good moments. The World Championship still comes as a big disappointment, but I thought that this one tournament should not detract from my hard work.”
The driving force of Kim Ye-rim, who spent her best season at the age of 20, was ‘the power of positivity’. Her height, at 170 cm, can cause injury and become a barrier to maintaining her jumping quality. However, she decided to use it positively and tried to use her strengths with her long arms and large-scale jumps and movements.
Competitiveness with players who come out with difficult jump configurations as the season goes by is also one of Kim Ye-rim’s challenges. Although there are no high-level jumps such as the quadruple jump or the triple axel, the technical composition he is currently attempting is never inferior to that of top senior players.먹튀검증
Kim Ye-rim said, “I plan to try in various ways (to improve the technical composition). Last year, I had a strong desire to improve, so I put the double axel sequence in the second half of the program. I don’t know if it will increase, but I will try.”
Kim Ye-rim, who became the eldest sister of the national team, confessed, “I have a sense of responsibility, but there are times when I feel a little lonely fighting.” After experiencing the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, his eyes are on the 2026 Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Olympics. It seemed that there would be times when his passion and will for figure skating would weaken. However, Kim Ye-rim said without hesitation, “Compared to his childhood, his figure has improved.”
“When I think about the future, I hope that (continuing to skate) will become a matter of course after I become a college student. And next season, I will show my best skills and perform well in the last two championships (Four Continents Championships and World Championships). My goal is to achieve it. During my adolescence, there were times when my passion for figure skating faltered, but now my love for this sport has grown. It’s a growing point. (laughs)”