South Korea's Kim Yu-na and her former coach, Brian Orser of Canada.
KIM KYUNG-HOON/REUTERS
A single tear rolled down Kim Yu-na’s cheek as she sat beside her mother Wednesday in a plush booth overlooking the ice.
The Olympic figure skating champion’s head hung to one side, her sniffs audible. Earlier, observers said, the 19-year-old had been openly sobbing.
As mom Park Mee-hee chatted with the skater’s assistant manager, while they waited for practice at the Toronto Cricket Club, the pride of South Korea appeared heartbroken. She didn’t utter a word.
Her heir apparent, 16-year-old Kwak Min-jung, began putting her skates on as the Zamboni prepared a fresh sheet of ice. Kim didn’t budge. In fact, she simply looked like she didn’t want to be there.
And soon enough, she wasn’t. The world champion left without stepping onto the ice for her usual afternoon session with the other competitive skaters.
If she is upset over the maelstrom surrounding her split from her Canadian coach and skating legend Brian Orser, neither Kim or her mother was saying. They declined an interview request when approached by the Star.
“They don’t want to make things worse so mom and daughter politely decline your request,” said the assistant manager, Helen Choi of AT Sports.
Kim and her mother have faced a backlash in certain quarters back home since Orser broke the news of the split Monday (He and fellow coach Tracy Wilson were fired on Aug. 2 by Kim’s mother). Orser is immensely popular with Kim’s legion of fans in South Korea. Her Vancouver gold medal was the country’s first at the Winter Olympics outside of speed skating.
The Koreans called Orser “Dad’s smile” for the shy grin he flashed –– like that of a proud father — every time his prized student excelled on the ice.
Orser wasn’t wearing that smile on Wednesday.
“I heard there were some tears,” he said in an interview in his office. “I know the whole thing has accelerated. I know this could have been handled differently on their part and it could have been done in a way that we could have avoided all of this.
“I care about her and I want to make sure she’s fine. She will be fine. She’ll be fine.
“I know there’s been some criticism from the fans and that’s not my motivation here at all. We had three weeks on egg shells here and I just need to say my piece as it is, as the truth, and everyone can move forward.”
It certainly has degenerated, with Kim accusing Orser of lying in his media interviews.
“An athlete and a coach can go separate ways, and there may always be different reasons,” Kim wrote in a post on Cyworld, the Korean equivalent of Facebook. “But, I am disappointed and upset that (Orser) had to let the world know about our dealings through the media, and things that should have stayed between us got out through untruthful tales.”
She also refuted the notion her mother is calling the shots.
“Do you think it’s really true that my mother decided on her own to part ways with the coach? I’m no longer a child,” wrote Kim, who will be 20 on Sept. 5. “He was my coach, and whether we stay on or part ways, it was my final decision, and this is what I decided to do, with discretion, after consulting with my mother.”
Orser stands by his version of events, that the decision “came out of the blue” and Kim directly told him and Wilson she was confused as to why it happened, and that he’d been frozen out of several important decisions over the summer.
“I was just happy that she has a voice in this,” said Orser of Kim’s statements. “But she sat right in this office with us last Thursday and didn’t say much and cried a little bit. It was kind of a great opportunity for her to say something because she was not in the original meeting (where he and Wilson were fired).
“When she’s saying I’m lying, it’s a tough statement to make because you weren’t there (when her mother gave them the news). But you know what, she’s looking after her mom. That’s what kids do, right? I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff out there about her mom and she cares obviously for her mom and wants to protect her. Good on her. That’s a good quality. That’s what she’s made of.”
Orser said he thinks Kim and her mother are smarting from some of the negative press they’ve been getting.
“Nobody likes to hear anything bad about themselves in the press,” said the former world champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist for Canada. “I’m sure there’s lots of bad things about me in the press, so I try not to read too much of it . . . .
“I know they’ve always followed the blogs and followed what the fans have to say and I don’t think the fans were too happy with this decision. But they’ll accept that eventually. That’s all there is to it.”
Orser says he believes there will be some valuable lessons for Kim and her entourage.
“She’ll be fine. I know she’ll be fine,” he said. “I know that they will grow from this and maybe they’ll learn something from this, because coaches are people and costume designers are people and you have to be kind of prepared to make changes.
“I’m not the only one to be let go from this camp and I won’t be the last.”