김연아 보그 코리아 2014년 6월호 인터뷰 영어 번역본 Part 2
[June 2014 - Vogue] Yuna Kim – Une Femme [2/2]
출처: thesunnytown.com Click
Part 1. As someone pointed out to me, this interview had two parts which I hadn’t noticed, so here’s the second one.
“I showed you this crying image of me many times, so I didn’t want to cry this time because me retiring wasn’t something that wasn’t my choice, it’s something I have been planning for a long time.”
Once the Sotchi Olympic Games were over, Yuna didn’t take a break and started preparing her ice show. For the first time, she got rid off the pressure and the stress of the competition. She’s now thinking of trying one by one each thing she couldn’t try meanwhile in fear of being injured. For instance, things like getting her driver’s license or riding a bike. She also wants to travel. “I’m curious about Paris. I don’t really know why. I got to go to many countries because of the sports events I attended meanwhile, but Paris seems to be almost the only famous travel destination among all of them. You see, competition events are mainly held on the countryside or in remote places.”
Paris is the place where Yuna won her first senior-level gold medal as well as established a new world record during the first event of the 2009 season. At that time, the only sightseeing she did was to go to La Butte Montmartre for a moment once the gala show was over. “But to be honest, I’d be good with going anywhere now.”
People would think that there must have been many things she wanted to eat all this time but couldn’t because she had to control her weight. However, she actually ate to her heart’s content when she was doing sports. “The two years I spent training before the Olympic Games, I had to force myself to eat, so I received more stress.”
The owner of this thin body any woman would be jealous of said she made sure to eat regularly three times a day because she lost weight when her body was weak, even just a little. Eating protein was essential to build muscle. “When I control my weight, I lose my physical stength, I ate out of duty, especially meat. I told myself “I must eat this so I can have energy”. I had to control my weight in a way that was a little bit different from when I was a kid.”
Yuna’s slim body shows a good-looking balance. When compared to Western figure skaters, her long legs and small face are great physical features, but her firm muscles, as a result of the long hours of training, made her figure stand out even more. That’s why any outfit looked good on her. When she wore a long ivory fringe dress with this 1920′s vibe, she was able to show beautiful movements like a ballerina would do. “It’s one of the choreographies I did before. I’m not a model, so I don’t know exactly what to do when I’m doing a photo shoot. I just do what I’m told. A lot of people expect me to know how to show artistic poses somehow, but I’m not good at it. It’s just that I’m good at the choreographies with fixed moves that I already know. I’m just not creative like that.”
At the beginning of the photo shoot, Yuna was surrounded by an unfamiliar environment and strangers, so she didn’t let her body move freely. The fashion editor suggested to play the music of the figure skating programs Yuna is used to. “I don’t like classical music. There’s already a lot of it in my programs musics, so it’s enough for me. When I’m going somewhere, I enjoy listening to music in the car. I mostly listen to Korean music.” The elegant goddess loves Korean music!
J. Estina designed jewelry for her for each show she did and Yuna particularly loved the pearl earrings. “When I did “Adios Nonino”, I really loved the earrings. The ones I’m wearing today are also beautiful. I think jewelry are gradually getting fancier more diverse in style.”
A trench coat over an immaculate one piece dress shirt, this laid-back style that Yuna enjoys also looked good on her. “The two types of clothes I wore all year were my figure skating outfits and my tracksuit. They’re just my work clothes. I’m really interested in fashion and I like shopping, but there were not really interesting things to wear during my life as an athlete. I thought a lot and hesitated [to buy clothes] telling myself “will I get to wear this?” A couple of things have been catching my eyes lately.”
Yuna likes plain clothing. Colorless or neutral colored outfits. She almost never wears high heels. She couldn’t because of figure skating. Wearing high heels even just a little would have affected the shape of her leg muscles including her calves. As soon as she put on high heels during the last photo shoot, Yuna shouted “Achilles!”. That’s why we prepared a lot of pretty sandals and shoes with low heels for her this time around. “I avoided wearing high heels unless it was for an official event. So, I think that’s why I’m used at being comfortable and I’m not really good at wearing high heels.”
To be honest, the relationship between “Vogue” and Yuna is quite deep. Our first meeting was after she got the bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships, before she left for Canada to train over there. The second time was at designer Lee Sang Bong’s atelier where she was with US figure skater Johnny Weir. This was the place where she did the fitting for the outfit she wore at the “2009 Festa on Ice”. At that time, Yuna set a new world record with her short program at the Four Continents Championships held in Vancouver, we met her after she received the “world champion” title at the World Championships. Yuna was already a superstar. What about now, five years later? Two defeats in a row at the World Championships, and every “grand slam” title figure skating has to offer. She’s an athlete who achieved to be all-podium as she never ranked less than 3rd place regardless of the competition she entered. During the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, she had the highest score of all time and she won the silver medal at the Sochi Olympic Games. Yuna became a legend of the figure skating world.
A bottle of champagne in a bucket full of ice arrived on set. A mainstream PR agency employee who is also a member of “Seung-Nyang-Ee”, Kim Yuna’s fanclub, heard about the photo shoot and brought champagne to celebrate this great day. We were curious about what “Seung-Nyang-Ee” [t/n: it means "dhol" in Korean] meant. According to this person who knew everything about Yuna’s programs and circumstances related to them just like a figure skating commentator, the name “Seung-Nyang-Ee” was inspired by the time when “banquet” pictures were uploaded on Yuna’s mini home page after the 2007 World championships and the fans gathered like a herd of seungnyangees and loaded the pictures.
The only athlete who has such a passionate and large group of fans is Kim Yuna. You can see just by looking at what happened at her last ice show. Tickets were sold out in less than 30 minutes. Because 230 000 people tried to access the booking site at the same time, the server crashed. Unlike entertainers who become the reason fans live for, the word fan has a different meaning for athletes whose good results are important.
“It’s true. The fans supported me, gave me strength and they’re clearly people I’m thankful for, but athletes can’t do well at every competition they do. The atmosphere is very different nowadays, but when you fail, you hear a lot of unpleasant things.”
Kim Yuna wasn’t just a famous person. She was Korea’s little sister, Korea’s daughter. When Yuna was compared to Mao Asada whom had been confronted with since their junior days, it wasn’t just a personal matter, it usually turned into a national matter. Sometimes, it was even a very serious atmosphere. Yuna was Korea’s pride. There could be nothing but a feeling of pressure and responsibility to have better results than the average. “What I’m the most thankful for is how people kept showing me love without expressing their disappointment even when I did a mistake. I thank the people who came to see me, even when the competitions were overseas. Sometimes, it feels great to think “am I this big?”.”
Yuna slurred the end of her sentence as if she was embarrassed. She said she still didn’t know why her fans liked her so much.
Yuna is also a fan. Five-time World champion Michelle Kwan was the idol of the little Yuna who was started skating. It’s still the same today. “She wasn’t just a figure skater who got good grades, her acting was full of energy and emotion. That’s why she remains as a beautiful athlete in the memories of so many people. It’s not just in figure skating. She also keeps working hard to reach her goals in other fields.” Things she would have never dreamed of when she was a kid happened. During the Sotchi Olympic Games, Michelle Kwan said about Yuna’s acting that “it took her breath away”. She even uploaded on her Twitter a picture of Yuna and her doing the Gangnam Style's horse dance. They’re now colleagues walking down the same path.
On May 6th, Yuna danced her last dance as Andrea Bocelli’s “Time To Say Goodbye” played. And the light went out on this beautiful stage at the end of the final song and after the queen bid her last farewell. “Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been living following almost only the same pattern. I think about living a complete different life now, so I’m anticipating this and I’m also scared. To be honest, sports is all I know. Can I be good at something else? Still, my impatience is bigger than my worries.”
People who have done sports for a long time have a unique sense of balance. It’s the same when it comes to real life. They know how to fight and win against themselves. As a woman, Yuna’s dream is “to be happy and enjoy my life by being myself”. Yuna has no worry. The queen opened the doors of the ice palace and made one step into the world. Which image will Yuna show the next time “Vogue” meets her? “I’m not quite sure. I’ll be older? Haha. I’ll keep working in the sports world anyway because figure skating was what I did best and it’s the thing I know best. I will never let go of figure skating until the end. I want to help my hoobaes.” The beautiful fairy tale always ended like this. “And she lived happily ever after.” We hope Yuna will be able to enjoy this free time she wanted so much. “Adios, gracias!”
Original article: Vogue
Translation: @onesunnylady – www.thesunnytown.com
VOGUE Korea 인스타그램 (http://instagram.com/p/qLYQiwyaTL/)
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