South Korean figure skater Kim Yu-na will come home this weekend with the world championships initially scheduled for next week in Japan still in limbo, her agency here said Friday.
In a statement, All That Sports said Kim will arrive home on Sunday to continue training and also to serve as an honorary ambassador for the 2018 Winter Olympics bid for PyeongChang, an east coast alpine town. Kim is also set to appear in an ice show in Seoul from May 6-8.
Kim Yu-na
The 2011 World Figure Skating Championships were set to take place in Tokyo from March 21-27, and Kim was to travel to the Japanese capital this Sunday to begin practicing.
But following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami last Friday in Japan, the International Skating Union indefinitely postponed the championships. Ottavio Cinquanta, head of the ISU, has said the governing body is considering canceling the event or rescheduling it for October, either in Tokyo or in a different city in a different country. (Yonhap News)
The event would have been Kim’s first competitive appearance since last year’s world championships in March.
Russia has offered to host the championships but the ISU hasn’t made any decision on the fate of the competition.
Kim is the reigning Olympic gold medalist and the 2009 world champion. She holds the world records in short program (78.50), free skating (150.06) and total points (228.56) in the new judging scale. All marks were set at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. (Yonhap News)