Yuna Kim Throws Hat In The Ring

Yuna Kim in New York City. October 12, 2010.
Photo (c) Getty Images.

Kim Yuna's camp released a statement yesterday stating Kim's intention to compete in the 2011 World Championships, it will be her only competition of the season unless she decided to skate at the Four Continent Championships. The announcement comes just days after Kim's main rival, Japan's Mao Asada, did not make it to the Grand Prix Final.

Kim Yuna kept busy over the summer with her All That Skate shows followed by a dramatic break up with her coach Brian Orser. By early fall Kim moved on by bringing All That Skate to Los Angeles and announcing Peter Oppreggard as her new coach. A few media appearances throughout the fall, though, is all the skating world heard from their golden girl....

Until yesterday when she rocked their world once again saying she wasn't leaving competitive ice just yet. According to her press release, Kim will be skating to music from the ballet "Giselle" for her short program, while paying homage to her home country in her long program to "Arirang" - "the most famous piece of Korean Folk Music". David Wilson choreographed both programs, meaning the Short Program that Shae Lynn Bourne reportedly worked with Kim on has been scrapped.

Debate in skating circles revolves around whether or not the move to not skate until Worlds is a wise decision. With the ladies figure skating being in the state it's in - the more inconsistent skaters coming out on top and the reigning world champion faltering in her grand prix events - it's no surprise that Kim feels she's more than capable of the top spot should she skate relatively clean.

But, can it backfire? With no events prior to Worlds how is she going to work out any kinks that may give her 0 points or deduct them. There are new rules, and - while she still has a coach - she may miss a key component to the rules. There's also the competition jitters, we have no idea as to how well Peter will be able to calm Yuna and give her the confidence her former Coach was so able to give her. Will she have the nerve to go out there with brand new programs and skate to the top? Does she even have the competitive fire that she needs?

The one competition Kim could use as a spring board is the Four Continent Championships which will be a few weeks before the World Championships. This would be a wise move to skate in, but Kim told International Figure Skating in their latest issue that she didn't think she could be prepared in time to compete. Considering IFS is a bimonthly magazine, Kim must have just recently started hard training. If she's not ready for 4CC, will a few more weeks help her that significantly?

One thing's for sure, it just made this season interesting.

I'm Back!

Not going to take a whole lot of time and update, will do that sometime in the next few days. I am a bit under the weather and still editing photos from my trip. Had a great time, great weather, great company. And Thanksgiving was good as well. I'm still on a wacky time schedule and as such I'm just BLAH. I also feel a cold coming on, so I'm trying to keep it at bay.

Next on the agenda for me is moving down to teh Peninsula into my new home. More on that, hopefully once I'm not stressed.

On the Road

Just incase you missed it - http://originaldorktwins.blogspot.com/

30 Days of Me: Day Twenty

Day 20: A Hobby

I have several hobbies, and they all seem to be linked. Photography leads to scrapbooking, and most of my photography (hobby) and scrapbooking revolves around my travelling. You probably see where I'm going with this.

I have officially hit the 24 hour mark until I'm on a plane watching the Flight Attendants do the emergency procedure demonstration. To say I'm excited is an understatement. I love to travel, but my body hates to fly. My stomach is normally in knots and the barfbag is always the first thing I locate when I get to my seat. Dremamine is going to be the experiment this time around. It doesn't do anything for me when I'm on a boat in the ocean, but I'm going to give this extra strength drowsy kind a try. It's adult chewable orange flavor. Yeah, that's all Fred Meyer's had ha ha!

Hopefully it will work because I REALLY don't want a repeat of my last time on an airplane where I basically threw up for three hours. Yuck.

So this blog is going to be pretty much quiet for the rest of the month. I get back on thanksgiving so I should start blogging soon after ( not that anyone really cares about my schedule ). However, Erin and I will try to blog from time to time while on our trip. We have our own travel blog which you can find here - http://originaldorktwins.blogspot.com/ - and we'll be updating our facebooks. I will also try to twitter when possible - http://www.twitter.com/tonichelleak - so there's no excuse not to know what we're doing! Favorite our blog, follow me on twitter!

In other non-meme news: My parents go to view the potential new Casa for Tonichelle today at 11. I'm really hoping this comes through. I'm praying that a job opens up and it is a total possibility. I really hate that this will be decided while I'm travelling, though. All because dad took forever to actually do some investigating on the place. Oh well, it'll all work out.

I better get off of here and actually finish packing, or this trip will never get off the ground!

30 Days of Me: Day Nineteen

Day 19: A Talent of Yours

Well I'm going to take the cheaters way out and say Photography. Quite possibly it's the only semi-talent I have. I envy those that can sing, play an instrument well, and other talents. I envy other photographers as well, because I'll tell you a secret - I'm not very good. At least, I don't believe that I am. Seems funny that someone who is on her way to being a professional photographer says that, but I look at others and their work and I feel that I am sooooooooo far behind them on the talent scale.



I think the work I'm most proud of these days are my photos of sled dogs. I'm really enjoying shooting the races, however I'm no where near Jeff Shultz's ability. But he's had way more practice. I'm super excited to use my new zoom lens to see what types of shots I get this year!

30 Days of Me: Day Eighteen

Day 18: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Yay another "you have permission to ramble all the live long day" day! Ha ha!

I shouldn't even be posting at the moment, I should be doing laundry and packing for my trip. Erin and I are down to three days before I fly out to Seattle and she drives over from Montana to meet me. But my dad just called and gave me some incredible news on something I've been looking at for quite a while.

There's a house that's for rent on the Peninsula that is prime real estate. I figured it'd get picked up with no problem early on, but it's been reposted in the last couple of months - assuming it rented out easily in the summer for just the summer - it has EVERYTHING paid for and I and my parents all thought it would be a huge expense. So I let it go.

On a whim my dad called the person renting it out, and it's less than half of what we thought. WOW. I'm really praying that it works out, if I find a roommate it's a done deal, I'll take it as God moving. Technically I have the money for just me to make first month's rent, but I won't have another high paying job right out of the gate. I'll need to get anything until I can find something that pays well. I've just sent out a couple of applications, but with my leaving for three plus weeks it may be difficult.

My parents are so jazzed right now it'd probably be easy to swing them into helping me out at this point! LOL

30 Days of Me: Day Seventeen

Day 17: A piece of artwork (painting, sculpture, etc)

Okay, I couldn't figure out one piece that I liked most, so I went with a favorite artist. Jon Van Zyle is an Alaskan artist (seeing a pattern, yeah, you should) who is the official artist for the Iditarod. He doesn't just paint sled dogs and mushing, but he documents all of Alaska. He's an amazing talent.

Check out his website here: http://www.jonvanzyle.com/index.html

In other, somewhat related, news: the Iditarod Idita-rider Auction is up and running. This is a huge event as it's a great way to raise money for the race, while giving fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to run with their favorite musher for the first eleven miles of the race. You get to ride through Anchorage, AK in the ceremonial start of the Iditarod and hang out with your musher at the Musher banquet. Visit their website here: http://www.iditarod.com/ for more information on the race and the auction.