Kim Yu-na eyeing ‘final stage’ on ice

Kim Yu-na speaks yesterday to Korean winter sports national team athletes during a workshop at Mount Bukhan National Park in northern Seoul. [NEWSIS]

Korea’s “figure skating queen” Kim Yu-na said yesterday that she hopes to prepare for a swan song in Sochi, Russia, next year in a way that leaves no regret behind her. But, the defending Olympic champion also said that she wants to do it without feeling burdened.

Those seemingly conflicting words of resolution were made when she attended a Seoul workshop arranged for Korean winter sports national team athletes, who are training for the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in the Black Sea resort in February.

“This is my second time to compete in the Olympics, so I want to enter it without feeling the pressure,” Kim said before the workshop began at the Mount Bukhan National Park not far away from the National Training Center in Taeneung, northern Seoul. “This is my final stage as an athlete, so I want to finish without regret.”

Kim returned to Korea last Saturday after training in Canada, where she reportedly completed the choreography for her new free skate program. Any hints of the details of her program for the 2013-14 season could be revealed during her ice show, “All That Skate 2013,” to be held in the Olympic Park Ice Rink on June 21-23.

Meanwhile, Kim was ranked as the world’s 44th most marketable sportsperson by the magazine SportsPro and Eurosport, a TV network, on Monday. The only Korean athlete in the top 50, she was the fifth Asian on the list, after Indian cricket player Virat Kohli (13th), female Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng (30th), Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao (31st), and Japanese football player Shinji Kagawa (38th).

Football stars Neymar of Brazil and Lionel Messi of Argentina were ranked first and second, respectively.

By Moon Gwang-lip [joe@joongang.co.kr]