Figure skating queen meets her fans in Seoul

Kim Yu-na seemed to be relaxed after taking off the burden of her title “skating queen.” The 24-year-old figure skater met her fans at an event celebrating her return at the Time Square in Yeongdeungpo District in Seoul.

Kim shared her feelings and stories behind the Sochi Winter Olympics where she retired, and her future plan in a 50-minute talk-show setting.

She was flawless in both women’s single short program and free skate at the Olympics but ended up with a silver medal, giving up the gold medal to the host country’s Adelina Sotnikova. It created a controversy over the judging decisions in the world and it was a hot potato in the event as well.

Kim, who had said that she had no regret about the result, looked calm. “I was dumbfounded but I liked that it was over. I have never looked back on the result,” she said. “Before the Olympics, I used to say that I was not desperate about a gold medal. But I thought, As a human being, I would be sorry unless I get a gold medal. After the competition ended, I realized that I was not really desperate.”

When asked about her tears that she shed in the back stage after the scores came out, she said, “Even after the short program at Sochi, I lay in the bed at night and couldn’t believe that this time has come. I just burst into tears because of what I have endured so far.”

When she was asked her thought about retirement, she made people laugh, saying, “It’s been so long since I disliked skates. I don’t feel any regret because I have done it enough.”

She chose the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the 2013 Figure Skating Championships, and the Sochi Winter Olympics as her best stages as she showed “clean (flawless) performance” in both short program and free skate.

What does she think about her future? On running for a seat in the IOC athletes commission, she said, “I’m eligible to run in the election for the IOC athletes commission but there is no 100 percent guarantee. I need to think more about it, but I haven’t thought about that much.”

She said, “I’m happy about being free and out of the tensions from competitions and trainings for a while.” When asked about what she would do in a decade, she said, “I know nothing other than figure skating. I’ll keep doing figure skating regardless of what I’ll become, whether it is a coach or something else.”