Sorry for the delay but here is one more article from a Sina journalist written in the immediate aftermath of the ladies competition. The article reads like a tribute to Kim, occasionally overdone perhaps but remarkable for its sincerity and admiration. Again the author’s emotions can only be fully experienced in its native language. Please feel free to make corrections.

Source Text: http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2014-02-21/06047032710.shtml

Farewell to the Queen (written by 威猛, translated from Mandarin)

In an arena of frenzied cheering/screaming, seemingly unacceptable scores Kim Yuna remained as immovable as a mountain; a dazzling smile, an elegant wave to the crowd. She doesn’t need to cry with sorrow, or be desolate in disappointment instead she wants to use the most beautiful silhouette to exit this stage. Like god’s child, her eyes glow with calm and peace but inside she is made of a steel that cannot be easily destroyed. What more does she have to prove? One Olympic gold one Olympic silver, 2 world title, 2 silvers, 2 bronzes, 3 grand prix golds and 1 silver. In this sport of international proportions, she is one of its brightest stars and to have the Olympic silver as a farewell gift; her career is already complete.

Missing surging passion, lacking a driving/soaring goal, and though perhaps her motives were not as innocent as simply ‘participating’, maybe to come to these Olympics is already her biggest victory. At the conclusion of last year, she suffered from one of the most agonizing injuries a figure skater can endure; a right foot fracture. To twist in the air with a foot throbbing in pain, is there no blow more severe? The Korean expert insisted that ‘in order to compete at the Sochi Olympics, she cannot participate in other big competitions which would only aggrandize the pain.’ Although she did choose to compete at Korean Nationals and the Golden spin competition a b string event, to an athlete of her caliber this was only a warm up with lesser competitors while her first encounter with her equals would be the Olympics. So these Olympics was both her comeback as well as her farewell.

I won’t describe the details of these 2 days in Sochi which have made thousands of skating fans cringe; but suffice to say that in circumstances where anyone else might have crumbled in fear, a woman who hasn’t tasted international competitions for 6 months, produced two flawless skates to brilliantly conclude a skating journey that has spanned over a decade. Maybe her jumps are not as high before but her unflinching landings, her charming smile is the best gift to her fans; maybe she can no longer innovate but every time her displays of elegance and grace/refinement/class/taste exhibits the aura/presence of the world’s greatest figure skater. Really, perhaps the judges found more to admire in Russia’s ‘small torpedo’ (Julia L) or ‘small colorful flag’ (Adelina S) but in the hearts of most figure skating fans, it is Kim, the skater who has accompanied them through these years that is their real champion, the only one worthy of being remembered forever as the ‘butterfly beauty’.

Retirement, this is what she declared as early as 2012, after earning the silver at 2011 worlds she chose to fade away. But In July of 2012 she came back to this painful but exciting stage…… (author goes on to describe her reasons for returning)

Like some of China’s champion athletes, perhaps the decision to return or retire was not entirely her own but to an athlete of 23 years old, to a superstar who has brought so much glory to her country, to force her to stay would have been meaningless. Because of her, Korea had 3 tickets to the Olympics games and so their athletes could have the opportunity to compete in the crucible of the Olympic games. Because of her the bid for the Pyeongcheong olympics was smoother and because of her hard work and the efforts of other Asian skaters ladies figure skating has gained such popularity in the east. While the winter Olympic games consists of many events, how many has the passionate following of the summer games? Figure skating

Christened as Stella, she is like the star that shines in early dawn and who when day breaks has shone the last of her glory on the awakening earth; maybe Mao Asada and her well participate in some farewell performances but their leaving cannot be avoided. Many years later we will age, but we will always remember that in the early 10 years of the 21st century there were a few Asian beauties who danced with the music; they used humanity’s most mesmerizing lulls, gently yet enduringly touching our hearts.