Yuna Kim on lessons from her figure skating career: 'It will help me to stay resilient'

Even though she has stepped away from competitive skating, 2010 Olympic champion figure skater Yuna Kim can transport herself back to centre ice.

"Now that I have gone through the [Olympic] experiences myself, I have vivid memories of the Olympic atmosphere, the unseen tensions between coaches and athletes, and the feeling of the spectators holding their breath," she told Olympics.com in a recent exclusive interview, which has been translated from her native Korean.

"Since I’ve been there before - even when I watch it on TV - it feels like I’m experiencing it myself," she said. "It feels like I’m there with [the skaters]: Feeling the atmosphere - and getting nervous together."

"Thus I will be cheering with my heart, feeling like I’m in their shoes."

Kim has big shoes - or skates - she's left behind: The winner at Vancouver 2010 also won the silver medal at Sochi 2014 while capturing two world figure skating titles (2009 and 2013). She earned the moniker "Queen Yuna" from fans of the sport for her balletic, poignant skating style.

A hero in her home country of South Korea, she had the distinct honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the Opening Ceremony to kick off PyeongChang 2018, the first Winter Games held in that nation.

As she shared above, she'll be watching the skating with the rest of us during Beijing 2022, and has this message for her legions of fans: "Thank you for remembering me to this day and still watching my performances from time to time. Although I was once an active Olympian, please send your cheers to the figure skaters now - and ahead."

See what else Kim had to say in the exclusive conversation below, which has been translated from Korean and edited for clarity and length.

Modern skating - and a new chapter for Yuna

Olympics.com: Today - especially in women's skating - we're seeing a big jump in technical content: Triple Axels and quadruple jumps. What do you think of how the sport is evolving so quickly?

Yuna Kim: Surprisingly, outstanding athletes keep coming to the surface, and even the Korean athletes are technically improving continuously compared to my days.

Same goes for the men. These [athletes] are mind-blowing to me.

In my days, we didn’t even dare to imagine such techniques, but now it’s happening. The fact that sports is evolving as the time goes by is fascinating to me.

Olympics: At the same time, however, you balanced artistry and the technical side of the sport so carefully in your own skating. Why is that important?

Kim: There are many sports, but figure skating is one of the few that incorporates artistry. And I believe that’s one of the reasons why many people appreciated the effort and loved my performances.

Hence it was obvious for me not to neglect the importance of artistic elements such as choreography expressions, the music, the costume.

How the Olympics shaped Yuna Kim

Olympics: You competed at both Vancouver and Sochi, served a special role in PyeongChang and now will watch as a fan during Beijing. How have the Olympics shaped you - as a person?

Kim: As I was preparing for the Olympics as an athlete, there were many small and big challenges. For me, there were more difficulties. Although these efforts paid off at the end, if I think about the process - as I live from now on - whenever I’m encountering hardships and happiness, I feel like all of these experiences from my Olympic journey will help me.

As I live the second chapter of my life, I feel that these years of practice will help me to stay resilient. I have faced a big challenge and overcame it, so, no matter what kind of new events occur, the Olympics gave me the confidence to conquer anything.

That’s the meaning it holds.

Olympics: What are your first memories of the Olympics? Do you remember?

Kim: When I was young, when I just started figure skating, I discovered the Olympics by watching Nagano 1998. At that time I didn’t know what the Olympics was. I just saw the big international athletes standing on this big stage, and said, 'Wow that’s cool! I want to be there.' It was just a vague dream I had in my heart.

As I trained as an athlete, and as I went from a junior to a senior athlete, I started to feel the weight of Olympics that the athletes have. I finally realised what Olympics mean to the athletes.

Olympics: How would you say your life has changes since the Olympics? How do you reflect on it today?

Kim: The biggest difference is the pride I have towards myself from achieving and overcoming. That’s the biggest pride [I have].

When I was an athlete, I questioned myself: 'Can I really do this?' And I wanted to give up. But I succeeded after all those obstacles. Thus having this sense of self-pride is my biggest gain. And, like what I mentioned earlier, as I live my life, I have a mindset that, 'I achieved such difficult task.'

I have the strength in me to ask whenever I face a challenge, 'Will there be anything tougher than that?' To that extent, I gained the courage to overcome anything.

'There’s no way that this will go this smoothly'

Olympics: Are there lessons that you feel like you can pass along to the next generation of athletes who are competing? Or that we'll see in the coming years?

Kim: When I think about it, one of the big takeaways as an athlete was in the process of achieving. The process doesn't go as smooth as you think [it will]. No matter what kind of competition was ahead, I felt insecure whenever things were going too peacefully.

'There’s no way that this will go this smoothly.' I felt this once again before Vancouver [in 2010]: I was in perfect shape as I was preparing; my body was light as if I could fly. Yet, in my head, I was thinking, 'There’s no way that this will go as planned. It’s weird that this is going too smoothly.'

And at that moment, I injured my ankle only one month before the Olympics. At that moment I said, 'Yeah, this is how it should be.'

I thought: 'This is the moment for me to breathe so that I can recover my condition by the time I go to the Olympics. That’s probably why I am gifted with an injury now.'

I realised that I know how to take an uncertain situation positively.

Any athletes will agree with me: There’s no guarantee that you will perform well on the competition day because you are constantly in a good condition. Instead, it’s better to have that rhythm of jumping from down to up. And that’s the rhythm I felt on that day maybe... I don’t know

I just saw the brighter things ahead. As I was recovering, I was rather calmly waiting, and when I got back on the ice, I realised that my condition didn’t fall that much.

And from there I gained bigger positive energy.

That recognition was a valuable finding when I was an athlete. 'No matter what issues there are, no matter which uncertainties there may be, this too shall pass away.' That was my biggest lesson when I was an athlete.