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Call it the Asian Invasion. Or the Beast from the East. But for the first time in Olympic history, Asian skaters stood upon the podium in three of the four figure-skating events. With South Korea's Kim Yu-Na winning a gold medal and Japan's Mao Asada a silver with their skates on Thursday, Feb. 25, athletes from the Far East earned five of the 12 figure-skating medals in Vancouver. It's the highest haul so far in the sport at the Olympics for those from the Pacific Rim, and it signals the beginning of what many...
...Seoul, returned home from cram school at lunch to watch Kim skate with his family. "Maybe I will have to skip class today," he predicted amid the excitement. Even businessmen had caught Kim fever and were willing to suffer a dip in productivity during her skate. "When Kim Yu-Na perform[ed], I let all the workers stop, and we all watched together on the TV in the company," said Beom Jin Hong, CEO of an electronics-manufacturing company in Incheon. At Kim's high school in Gyeonggi province, from which she graduated last year and where her Olympic skating...
...beginning his coaching career. Having decided to adopt a hands-on approach, Orser skates along with Kim during most of her training sessions, pushing her to the remarkable speed she achieves as she flies across the rink. The move may have been just what Kim needed. "I think Yu-Na improved so much in Canada," says Jae Eun Chung, director of the Korean Skating Union. "The Korean culture values being quiet, but in figure skating, you need to express various feelings. She improved her confidence and her expression...
...that she will need in order to beat Kim, whose technical precision on spins and footwork can pile on the points. "She has nothing to lose," says Kwan of Asada's strategy for the free program. "She's got to nail the two triple-Axels thinking that Yu-na will do a clean program. If Yu-na does a clean program, the only way Mao can be competitive with her is to do both triple-Axels and her jump combination...
...keeps everybody on the edge of their seats, and that's exciting," Orser says of the competition between Kim and Asada. "It's exciting for Yu-na. She's a pretty fierce competitor, and this is no time to hold back...