Yuna Kim claims that Japanese figure skaters ruined her practice jumps

On March 14th, South Korean figure skater Yuna Kim said some bad things about her Japanese rivals during an interview with Korean TV network SBS. Kim claimed that other figure skaters have repeatedly disturbed her practice jumps when they have shared ice rink space for pre-competition work-outs. According to SBS, only Japanese skaters would get in her way, and it really got on her nerves.
The Japanese press has picked up the story and clips of TV news programs covering Yuna’s statements have shot to the top of the most-viewed ranking on YouTube Japan. Here’s one clip of a morning news program commenting on a Nikkan Gendai article (using the amusing photograph included in this post):
Quoted in the article is former Olympic skater Emi Watanabe, who says that any intentional attempts to interfere with the practice jumps of those skaters would have been spotted by judges who monitor the situation. The report also mentions a blog post Yuna Kim made in 2005 that publicly stated her wish that her greatest rival – Japanese skater Mao Asada – should have fallen down while skating at a competition.
Another video, allegedly showing Yuna Kim interrupting the practice jumps of Japanese skater Miki Mirai, has made its way to the top of YouTube rankings as well. As one might respect, the comment sections of all the videos involved are full of angry comments about Korea.
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Anyone who was living in Korea during the Apollo
Ohno incident, won’t be surprised by this at all…
I guess pretty soon, some K-Pop guy will come out
with a remake of the old F*CKING AMERICA song,
“F*cking Japan”…
This oughta be fun to watch…
Remember kiddies – if you can’t win, whine!
Well she could always higher some guy to kneecap he arch rival.
THAT is how you do it, Yuna! You whine and talk trash about your rivals behind their back. That is what I called real sportsmanship.
That is regreetable that Kim did. I would not expect it from her. Assada Mao has a great personality and character and she had a lot prizes because she made her best to deserve such thing. So Kim had not the right to criticize Mao and other Japanese.
Are you friends with Mao? How do you know she has a great personality and character?
Yes to that Rosaline, how do you know that Asada Mao doesn’t curse or talk crap about others? I know that Kim didn’t do a right thing there… but Mister M, or Mister Mitsubishi, don’t try to cover that Asada is always correct and Kim is not because you are Japanese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHzVto8mAFc
People should stop complaining about others and concentrate on themselves.
In this case, Yuna Kim, rather than to waste your own time whining you should consider putting that effort into your own practice…so maybe that one day you COULD win something.
You know what is a common theme as well? People tend to blame OTHERS before pointing their finger at themselves. Maybe if this could be reduced, we wouldn’t have as many controversies that are pretty pointless and stupid.
kay, there’s few things that i wanna tell you
first of all, Yuna Kim didn’t blame anyone and wasn’t ‘whining’. In fact, she wasn’t blaming at anything and i don’t know where you heard that from.
All she said during an interview was that she felt that some skaters were in her way when she was practicing her jumps. She didnt mention any specific name or the country of the player or anything.
secondly, Yuna Kim DID WIN SOMETHING, if you didn’t notice. She one the 4continents 2009 with a WORLD RECORD. Also, she one 2009 World Figure Skating Competition 2009, with another world record.
I just don’t get why you would think that Yuna Kim was whining and blaming others. She prectices as much as other skaters do, or even more.
Yuna Kim didn’t say anything about Japanese skaters getting in her way intentionally. SBS did. And then the Japanese media picked up on the SBS story and it all went to hell from there.
and she is going to win it..
whining? it’s more like, “sharing”.
you guys are the ones that are “whining”
btw, i like japan and stuff, i like korea too
if you guys don’t know whats happening behind the scenes and are just putting up stupid videos and calling it proofs,
then shut up because it’s very corny. same goes for korea’s internet fans, i hate all this i hate japan i hate korea bullshit. it’s so damn immature.
Yuna kim “suggested” (see below) that Japanese skaters intentionally obstructed her warm-ups, and SBS publicized it dramatically. Then, although the Korean Skating Federation announced that Yuna Kim didn’t mention any specific country, the Korean zealots spread the video clips of SBS on YouTube and accused Japanese skaters of intentionally impending Yuna Kim’s warm up, where we can find full of racist comments against Mao Asada.
Now, Korean Americans in New York successfully convinced the New York Times reporter, Juliet Macur, to write: “At Four Continents, when she suggested that Japanese skaters intentionally stymied her warm-ups, her fans rallied to her defense. The Japan Skating Federation said there was no intentional obstruction. But Kim’s compatriots steamed,” as if it was true that Japanese skaters obstructed her warm-ups unintentionally, to say the least.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/sports/othersports/27skate.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=yuna%20kim%20japan%20&st=cse
I am amazed that the Koreans are very strong in an information war like this (or what Alex called “image control”). The possible problem is, so long as the Koreans spread this kind of lies about Japan all over the world, the Japanese will never ever get along with the Koreans, though that’s not a problem at all for most Japanese.
I believe Japan is equality to blame for how this incident became such a big deal. First of all, some skaters did obstruct Yuna’s practice intentionally. Why would the sorry mass of Japan even deny that. Why on earth would any skater complain about it if such incidents didn’t happen? To the point that her team felt it needed to be addressed. Her coach is Canadian by the way, not even a Korean and it has nothing to do with nationality. Of course the reporters had to see who this was. And I blame the reporters for blowing it out of proportion, jumping to conclusion and plastering it all over the news, evenif I do believe it was the Japanese skaters (and there are so many Japanese skaters by the way) that did obstruct her practice in purpose.
But then, Japanese media, piles on with multiple voracity, posting sly, vile pictures and accusation that Yuna Kim is doing this on purpose when there was no obstruction at all to begin with.
Typical of Japanese, they don’t acknowledge their wrong AT ALL. It started with Japan. Yet, they again turn it around and abuse and demise others for calling out the truth.
That’s the true picture of Japan. And that’s why all of Asia HATES JAPAN!
First off, off topic:
to the blogger, james whatever. I know you can do whatever you want to your blog. But can you stop posting articles that might offend others as you do often like posting semi-naked dudes?
And to the article:
As I said before, always exaggeration by Japanese media when it comes to Koreans, here’s truth about the incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR-H9BaVHrg&feature=related
OK, so when the Korean media reports it, it’s the “truth”, and when the Japanese media reports it, it’s an “exaggeration”.
Roger that.
Also look at the ugly picture they printed on newspaper. Very unprofessional.
The one thing 二刊ゲンダイ has never been accused of is professionalism – it’s a tabloid rag…and a fun read to boot!
sorry – 日刊ゲンダイ
sigh, this is sad.. well, this isn’t i encountered korean news telling the “truth”. i remember few years ago, BBC had a documentary about koreans eating dogs.. the reporter of BBC had to eat dogs but he changed his mind, but in the korean tv news, they showed that he enjoyed eating the dogs.
maybe koreans really like making up stories.
?
my point is, koreans like to make up stories.
LOL…not that that could be construed in any way as an unfair generalization.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR-H9BaVHrg&feature=related
I would like you to see this video and say if Koreans were making up stories.
are you sure only Koreans in general like to make up stories??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLC4yfspGHc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loCkn8VJmL8
at least, Koreans don’t make these stories, and I think this is just fights between media, I think both, Korean and Japanese media is just making up stories so that they can get attention from people!
Yuna never mentioned a certain country during her interview.
Mr. James should have been more careful about what he writes if his intention was to give acutual facts.
She did win. So I do not understand the “If you can’t win, whine” remark. Also, Yuna did not mention any name or country during her interview. Before writing such things about a person,One should gather actual facts, if his or her intentions are to let the people know the ‘truth’. I
I think James is just telling what Japanese media was saying.And Japanese media was supposed to be saying what SBS was telling.
Kim didn’t mention any names on SBS , Japanese media says.
But rival skaters have disturbed her practice just before the competition, reported SBS.
SBS says that her coach even protested Japanese skaters and other skaters get in the way when Kim tried to jump. The skaters were always Japanese.
Do you have a transcript of what SBS reported on this? That might show which media was misleading.
FYI, on March 19 the Japan Skating Federation sent an official request to its Korean counterpart to investigate the alleged interferences made by the Japanese figure skaters and to release the findings before the World Figure Skating Championship next week. You’ll see the ‘truth’ you are eager to know.
Yuna’s statement may suggest that she intentionally obstructed the run-throughs of Ando Miki and Yukari Nakano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2aojwXEmnY
Other skaters block Kim Yuna, Kim Yuna blocks other skaters – What else would you expect in an event where young girls compete to outshine each other? It’s not a team event – It’s all about “me”.
My comment above was a bit too sarcastic. I don’t think that skaters intentionally obstruct the run-throughs of other skaters. Even in the run-through time for one skater, other skaters are there in the rink. They don’t know what course the rehearsing skater will take. In such a situation, near-contact would be a commonplace. I think the blame should go to SBS that delivered the exaggerated report.
In a figure skating blog, Required Element, a commenter, Jane, posted several informative comments. They are worth taking a look at. The following is from one of her comments.
No , this article is categorized as anti-Japan (which sort of makes sense because this is a J blog, but at the end it seems to be anti Korea also, with the unscrupulous pic of Kim taken by the paper, the キミユナ name they can use her kanji name 「金姸兒」 and the bad Korea comments on that last vid youtube. I just wish Japan and Korea wouldn’t take things so personally and have things grow. I mean they are neighbors and should really push for respect Koreans and Japanese and when talking about any people. Western media and social additude have been friendly and objective now for quite some time towards all countries, and if Japan and Korea want to move past racism tension, they should have genuine relations shown to each other and try to include in media. Thanks for posting this story Jame.
Yes, Yuna said it. I don’t think she’s imagining things. She just won the World Championship in LA; she can’t be “seeing” things that’s not there.
Congratulations!
BTW Yuna said what?
Im so sick of all the Japanese racism on youtube towards koreans , japanese making fake IDs with horrible korean racial slurs. Yuna never mentioned Japan yet Japan freaks out. seems a bit like the tell tale heart. if you bother to watch the entire warmups, it happened numerous times by ALL the Japanese skaters,theyd watch her from the corner of their eye and get in her way..a few times, one Japanese skater wizzed so close to her they almost collided. At my local skating rink, there are coaches (european ) that have seen it as well and they are VERY disappointed with the japanese skaters. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL. i wanted korea and japan to be great friends and rivals but it seems japans racism still runs VERY DEEP>horrible.
sasha,you really sound korean
koreans always deny after something happened and blame japan.
i see this a lot on youtube.
i have been reading what people were saying here and i couldn’t stand any more.
yuna kim clearly claimed that japanese skaters ruined her practice!if she didnt mention “japanese skaters”,why is it such controversial in japan?
yuna didnt expect that japan figure skating association was gonna complain and this issue was gonna be such a big mess.
i can easily guess that the canadian coach is brainwashed that japanese are evil because he lives in korea.
sasha, if you guys really wanna be friend with japan, why don’t you stop anti-japanese education?
do you think 2 would be great friends if one kills national bird like that way??????
it doesnt make sense.
every time i watch TV,koreans burn japanese flag.
how come yuna or korea admits that she made a mistake,then japanese dont have to get angry.
a lot of korean people get on youtube and blame japan for anything!!im so sick of it!
i do know that if two countries can be best friends ,nothing would be better.
but it seems korea loves to hate japan,
im not trying to be offensive but korea should grow up and learn true history and nationalism instead of lying and hating.
“yna kim clearly claimed that japanese skaters ruined her practice!if she didnt mention “japanese skaters”,why is it such controversial in japan?
yuna didnt expect that japan figure skating association was gonna complain and this issue was gonna be such a big mess.”
“im not trying to be offensive but korea should grow up and learn true history and nationalism instead of lying and hating.”
First of all.. Yuna Kim CLEARLY CLAIMED what??? I love how people can be so ignorant. People like you don’t even know whats going on in your own room, thats pretty sad. Do not make false claims and let the history speaks for itself. I am an Korean myself. Your right, Korean people do complain.We are selfish, Savy, Stingy, Short temper, talks crap behind people’s back and we are very prideful,BUT WHO DOESN’T??????? Tell me something i don’t know.
And speaking of the fact, Japanese were BRAIN WASHED by hitler, if not anything eles, Japan has done very horrible things to Korea and EVEN CHINA Unfortunately. Let me teach you a real history my friend.Japan invaded China and Korea, but for WHAT REASON??? Because they belived in they could control the world, much similar to Hitler and Social Darwinism “Survival of the fittest”. You know how many people they raped or killed chinese and koreans??? Approximately about 25million people, 2-5m were military personel, and rest of them were just regular civilians. These is what i call a “ASIAN HOLOCAST” my friend. That number is equivalent to 5% of Japan’s population. And now let me ask you a question.. Why do think Koreans and other countries hates Japan??? now you know why koreans burn japan’s flags. There’s your answer.
Having said all these, I am don’t hate japan. Infact, ironically i told my mom that i would like to marry an japanese woman someday, because i think they’re cute, pure, and Kind. However, there’s a always people like you who makes false claims and jumping to conclusion is what pisses me off the most. I am sure you wrote that comment for the same reason. Don’t play alliances. NOBODY IS GOING TO WIN AN ARGUMENT, the only result is mental abuse.. STOP telling people what to do, perhaps you should be the one who needs an education???
Nothing like dragging up an old thread to vent incoherently….
BTW, when you say “STOP telling people what to do,” are you telling people what to do?
It appears there many immature Japanese folks who like to blame Korean for their mistakes and denies history… Oh wait, perhaps their “supreme” national pride must been squashed because all japan skaters and sponsored money can not beat one Korean skater. Ouch, did that hurt that bad???
Kim Yuna never said that even though alot of people think Mao and Yuna hate each other in real life they are buddies.
yuna never mentioned particularly about japanese skater during the interview, although she said she was bothered, it was the japanese skating association themselves who said they were offended before anyone ever said anything.. and that picture.. it shows how this person is so respectful toward other nations and now you are talking about sportmanship? please.. and today, Yuna had established the new world record in paris and the result clearly showed that she wasn’t ‘whining’ after all. so please lets be respectful and admit the fault.
I can’t believe how low and vile Japanese people are like. I’m not Asian so please do not try to turn this around to a specific country. I am just a skating fan.
But I believe Japan is equality to blame for how this incident became such a big deal. First of all, some skaters did obstruct Yuna Kim’s practice intentionally. It appalls me to see how Japan tries everything in its power to not even acknowlege that fact. That fact that there were annoying amount of obstruction happening during the practice is completely being ignored. Why on earth would any skater complain about it if such incidents didn’t happen? To the point that her team felt it needed to be addressed officially. Her coach is Canadian by the way, not even a Korean and it has nothing to do with nationality. Of course the reporters had to see who this was. And I blame the reporters for blowing it out of proportion, jumping to conclusion and plastering it all over the news, even if I do believe it was the Japanese skaters (and there are so many Japanese skaters by the way) that did obstruct her practice in purpose.
But then, Japanese media, piles on with multiple voracity, posting sly, vile pictures and accusation that Yuna Kim is doing this on purpose when there was no obstruction at all to begin with.
Typical of Japanese, they don’t acknowledge their wrong AT ALL. It started with Japan. Yet, they again turn it around and abuse and demise others for calling out the truth. (remember WWII?)
I have heard and seen in many incident how vicious Japanese can be. I don’t need to live in Asia to hear and learn of Japan’s personality. Japan like to torture and belittle people to utmost vicious level. I have heard of many incidents where Japanese students drives their own follow classmates to suicide by viciously bullying and belittling them. I can see this happening with Yuna’s incident too. It is sad to see such inhuman actions Japanese pursue but doesn’t even know they are being such an embarrassment. They care so much about their image yet, they have no idea they are destroying it by trying to viciously protect it.
You don’t want to turn this into something accusing a specific country … except for your viscous and unrelated historical accusations against Japan, from a standpoint which you go out of your way to tell people isn’t Korean Asian and hence, supposed to be taken as being objective. Wonderful.
So Kim Yuna suggests some skaters from an unnamed country blocked her, reporters jumped to conclusions, but you believe it to be Japanese skaters, and now it’s the truth denied?
And now Japan as a whole is in the wrong for the media not acknowledging a transgression on their skating team that is, regardless of whatever you believe personally, still only an unverified accusation, and offering their own speculation as to why she would have said those things.
The leaps and jumps aren’t restricted to the skating rink it seems.
And since you cite the third-party nationality of the coach as reason for the objectiveness of the original claim (which wasn’t against Japanese skaters any ways), I suppose that means you’re implicitly stating if it were Koreans, then they would be liable to giving slanted views in contrast.
vicious … not viscous.
With all your speaking about Hitler, you’re lumping EVERYONE in JAPAN in one group as if everyone has the same personality. If you believe it is wrong, as you say, why are you perpetuating it?
You say the Japanese are bullies…of course the students who commit suicide are also Japanese, presumably shy, and not bullies…
Ugly, vicious comments are everywhere. I was bullied myself, in America, as a little Caucasian girl. The whole world has ugly things in it if you look for them, but the racist way you generalize Japan is as ugly as the behaviors you talk about.