(LEAD) (Olympics) You Young 6th after women's singles short program

유지호 / 2022-02-15 23:52:49

(LEAD) (Olympics) S Korea-figure skating

▲ You Young of South Korea performs her short program during the women's singles figure skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Feb. 15, 2022. (Yonhap)

▲ Kim Ye-lim of South Korea performs her short program during the women's singles figure skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Feb. 15, 2022. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) (Olympics) S Korea-figure skating

(LEAD) (Olympics) You Young 6th after women's singles short program

(ATTN: ADDS scoring details, comments throughout)

By Yoo Jee-ho

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's You Young ranked sixth after the short program of women's singles figure skating at Beijing 2022 on Tuesday, nearly matching her best score of the season with a strong performance.

You scored 70.34 points in the first phase of the competition at Capital Indoor Stadium, sitting 11.82 points back of the leader, Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with 82.16 points. You fell 0.39 point short of her season best set in October last year.

Anna Shcherbakova of the ROC is in second place with 80.20 points, followed by Kaori Sakamoto of Japan at 79.84 points.

The free skate is Thursday.

Performing to "Whirling Winds" from the soundtrack to "The Leftovers," You opened with what appeared to be a clean triple axel. But it was later downgraded to a double axel, costing You 4.70 points in base value alone. She was also docked 0.99 point in grade of execution (GOE) score.

She followed it with a flawless triple lutz-triple toe loop combination.

She nearly two-footed her landing of a triple flip, her final jump of the program, and lost points for not having clear edge on her takeoff. You managed to mix it with well-executed spins and step sequence.

You earned 36.80 points in her technical element score, which measures execution of jumps and other technical elements, and had 33.54 points in program component score, which evaluates choreography and overall performance.

"I am satisfied that I didn't have any huge mistakes," You said. "Honestly, I was really nervous and anxious today. I think I lacked confidence in my triple axel.

You skated right after Valieva, as the 27th out of 30 performers. Valieva put 82.16 points on the board to take the lead in one of the most anticipated women's figure skating performances in recent memory, and You, not looking fazed one bit, put on a fine show of her own.

Valieva was cleared to skate here despite testing positive for a banned medication in December. She had been suspended by the Russian anti-doping authorities earlier but had it lifted on appeal. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) challenged that decision, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport sided with Valieva on Monday.

You, 17, sits a tier below Valieva, already the greatest technician in women's figure skating at age 15, and the rest of the Russian "Quad Squad," Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova.

You's medal chances will depend largely on her ability to land a triple axel, the most challenging element of both her short program and free skate, and also the triple jump with the highest base value with 8.00 points. You hadn't been able to execute that jump consistently heading into Beijing, and she will need to be sharper Thursday.

Kim Ye-lim, the one other South Korean skater in the field, earned 67.78 points to rank ninth. The 19-year-old skated a mostly clean program to "Liebestraum" by Franz Liszt but still fell short of her season-best 70.56 points or personal-best 73.63 points. Kim lost points for under-rotating her triple flip near the end of the program.

"I was a lot more nervous than I thought I'd be," Kim said. "Luckily, I didn't make any huge mistake. I know I didn't have a perfect skate, but I didn't receive as many points as I'd hoped. But I can live with this score."

Kim said she received a text message Monday night from Kim Yu-na, the South Korean figure skating legend and the 2010 Olympic champion.

"She hadn't been in touch for a while, and so I figured that was that. But then she sent me a message," Kim said. "She told me to keep on battling until the end. It helped me so much."

The top 24 out of 30 after the short program will get to perform in Thursday's free skate.

(END)