Yu-na Kim (김연아) 2008 Grand Prix Final!

The 2008 Grand Prix Final is this week in Korea! This competition isn't as big as World Championships, but it is the final for the grand prix of figure skating of the 2008/2009 season. Here's a quick rundown of how it works: there are 6 international competitions around the world with skaters competing at 2 events at most. (some skaters only compete at one because they didn't get an invitation from the host nation) Skaters earn points towards qualifying for the final. 15 points for 1st place, 13 points for 2nd, 11 points for 3rd and so on. Kim Yeon Ah won both her events at Skate America and Cup of China so she automatically qualified for the final. The top 6 qualifiers of each discipline (ladies, mens, pairs, ice dance) compete in the final.

This year, the final is in Korea in Goyang City. There was actually a lot of figure skating fans in Korea angry with the Korean skating federation because the finals are held in a smaller stadium thus, less tickets were available. There is a bigger stadium in Seoul, but for some reasons it didn't pass all the requirements to hold an international competition. But the stadium in Goyang is usable, even thought it's much smaller.

Anyways, the finals are this week and Kim Yeon Ah arrived in Korea today, very early in the morning.

Reporters, photographers, and fans were waiting in the airport since late night because her plane arrived around 3 or 4 in the morning. So she was a little more than surprised to see people coming out in the wee hours of the morning just to see her!

Can we please keep her in one piece, at least until she skates? Seriously, these people need to remind themselves to be more careful around her.

SCHEDULE:

(all times in Korea)

12/12: Ladies - Short Program (20:15)

12/13: Ladies - Free Skating (20:05)

12/14: Gala Exhibition (14:00)

Short Program: Danse Macabre

Long Program: Scheherazade

Dang, check out the fan dedication!

credits; dcinside for the pictures

Update 12/10: Practice session pictures

Update 12/11: Practice session + press conference pictures

Update 12/12: Short Program

*I will update the thread as the competition progresses.

Haha, true the reporters need to give space, but despite that, she seems happy.

She has a pretty smile, good luck to her in the Grand Pix :]

hopefully she does well...

she was surprised by the reporters! LOL

cute reaction~

i hope she will do well in the event... I really wish to see her win again, but anything can happen in the ice rink.

Good luck!

-Far

hahaha. for a moment i thought you were talking about formula one.

but anyway, she looks good!

She has a cute smile ~~~~~~~~~

she's beautiful!

and wow she is really thin!!

good luck to her! i'm sure she'd love to win in her own country~

She is SOOOOO SKINNY!

Im jealous... haha

All of Korea is so proud of her and to ParkTaeHwan as well. They are the young athletes of Korea who have made their way in the international field and made their name known.

she is an amazing girl.

and very talented.

Kim Yuna fighting for Korea!

All of Korea is so proud of her and to ParkTaeHwan as well. They are the young athletes of Korea who have made their way in the international field and made their name known.

basically u can say that park tae hwan and kim yu na r the IDOLS in the sports world..

korea's pride...korea's happy that she's making it big!!!

goodluck to her~~

that one picture of that guy holding her

she looks so petite and fragile

She's a very talented and awesome skater. Truly gifted.

I wish her good luck!

an original korean beauty.

her movement on the ice is so powerful and majestic. she´s on her way to becoming a world skater.

i find her really pretty ^^ good luck to her<3

thnx for the updates!!

coincidentally i was just pondering about what this girl has been upto.

and lol, i see this thread!

well..i would be suprised @ 3-4 am to see a large group of fans/reporters.

i wish this girl goodluck!

wow, they had a live orchestra?

Those fan dedications are cool. And your Yuna sig is really cute!