In the shocker of all shockers, Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim of Korea announced her split with coach Brian Orser yesterday.Orser, who guided Kim to World and Olympic titles in less than four years, said the skater's mother, Park Mi-Hee, approached him three weeks ago and said that his services were no longer needed.
There is clearly something more going on here; it's likely that Kim no longer has the drive or ambition to train at an elite level anymore, which is understandable. After all, she's won everything imaginable and is the biggest celebrity in South Korea right now, endorsing everything from refrigerators to her own brand of cell phone.
Skaters change coaches all the time, but this split comes as one of the biggest surprises since Michelle Kwan left Frank Carroll before the Olympic season in 2001.
What makes the situation more awkward is that Kim, 19, still trains at the same Toronto rink Orser coaches at, and he admitted that "it has created a tension that is having an impact on all the other skaters. Something has to change."
Those "other skaters" include both Adam Rippon and Christina Gao, a pair of quickly rising American stars. Orser guided Rippon to the Four Continents Championship gold medal last season, while Gao was a surprise bronze medalist at the Junior Grand Prix Final.
Kim announced her intention to skip the Grand Prix Series this fall, and instead focus her training for the World Championships coming up in March in Tokyo. However, with a plethora of opportunities coming her way since striking gold in Vancouver -- including her own ice show -- it appears unlikely at this point in time that we will see her on competition ice again.
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