Like everyone, I have caught the Olympic fever. Which country am I rooting for? Naturally, I can’t deny my roots to the good ol’ U S of A. However, recently it has been especially exciting to watch Korea and the United States duel it out on the ice rink. Korea has much pride invested in their speed skaters and if you have been watching, you can see it’s for a good reason. It’s been interesting hearing about the speed skating from my students because they hate America’s favorite, Apolo Ohno. Apparently the bad blood goes back to the Salt Lake City Olympics where South Koreans believe Ohno stole the gold medal from Korea’s Kim Dong-sung. Kim Dong-sung finished the race first in the 1,500 meter race but was disqualified for blocking. In addition, Apolo Ohno is half Japanese which adds fuel to the fire because Korea has a bitter rivalry with Japan. Click HERE for an article that describes the story in more detail:
Korea is especially anticipating the upcoming women’s figure skating competition later this week because Korea’s skating sensation Kim Yuna will be competing. Kim Yuna is South Korea’s athletic sweetheart. She is in magazines, in commercials, on billboards, you name it, all over the country.
Never has a South Korean female figure skater won an Olympic gold medal and this year Korea has high hopes. Here is a short clip on Kim Yuna. Her coach seems to be a bit of a kook and clearly has a chip on his shoulder about his 1988 loss to Brian Boitano, but the clip is informative nonetheless.
On that note, watch for Kim Yuna and go USA!
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