VANCOUVER - When world champion figure skater Kim Yu-Na of South Korea reached the ice Wednesday night, she was revved up for a fight.
Her biggest rival, Japan's Mao Asada, had just delivered a spectacular short program just moments before and the gauntlet had been thrown down.
With some jazz-inspired moves set to a medley of James Bond tunes, she glided effortlessly through her routine with her usual verve, speed and connection to the music. Kim ended it with her hands clasped together in a sly gun gesture, the competition blown away.
When it was over, Kim had set a new short-program world record of 78.50 points. She sits in solid contention for the gold medal after Thursday's long program, what would be the first for South Korea in figure skating.
"She's a very fierce competitor, so when she sees someone has skated well she steps up to the plate," said her coach Brian Orser, two-time Olympic medallist for Canada. "I was the same way when I competed."
Kim is a bona fide A-lister in South Korea, where she is chased relentlessly by paparazzi and fans.
At the Pacific Coliseum on Wednesday, South Korea reporters dashed from every corner of the arena to try and get some words with her after her skate. A South Korean television crew was stopping Canadian reporters earlier in the week outside the building to ask what the thought of Kim and Asada.
One excited fan shouted out, "You are so beautiful!" as she prepared to start her performance Wednesday.
She has found some peace and quiet training north of Toronto since 2006, alongside Orser, choreographer David Wilson and assistant coach Tracy Wilson.
Orser said she might not be so anonymous in Canada after this Olympic performance.
"She's a beautiful skater and she shares it. Her emotion when she skates, there's nothing selfish about that," said Orser. "It reaches everybody, it reaches everybody around the world..."
Of her rivalry with Asada, Kim would only say that she was happy for the two to go head-to-head at an Olympic Games. Both are 19 years old, and she said she felt they had matured over the years of competing against each other.
Asada, now in second place going into the free skate, echoed the sentiment.
"She's my rival, but in a good way, because we are kind of friends as well," said Asada. "We have been skating together for a long time and we are the same age, but once you hit the ice and you start skating you just concentrate on your own skating."
But at least one veteran skater, former Canadian medallist Elvis Stojko, suggested that Kim's marks were too high. He noted that Asada had successfully landed a triple Axel - she's the only woman who executes them regularly in competition - and got fewer marks than Kim's easier triple Lutz.
The argument is similar to the one over whether American Evan Lysacek should have won the gold medal without having landed a quad like his competitor Evgeni Plushenko.
"Yu-Na Kim is way too far ahead. I don't agree with that," said Stojko. "She skated great. Don't get me wrong, she's awesome. But for Mao to do an awesome triple Axel like that, a triple [Axel] is worth way more than a triple Lutz, triple toe."
Italy's Giuliano Razzoli takes the gold medal in the men's slalom.
Mathieu Giroux, Lucas Makowsky and Denny Morrison win a tight race with the US.