Lausanne, Switzerland, February 13, 2020: Korea’s Winter Youth Olympic Games figure skating champion You Young will be only 17 years old when the next Winter Olympics come around in Beijing in 2022.
But she is on course to be one of the finest skaters in the world at Beijing 2022 and with a genuine chance of earning a place on the podium, even against the mighty Russians, Japanese and North Americans.
You finished 13 points clear of the field at Lausanne 2020 and was named by the International Olympic Committee as the No. 1 breakout star at the Winter YOG.
Although she was ecstatic about her gold medal at the Winter YOG, her attention is already turning to future tournaments, including Beijing 2022.
“I enjoyed it very much,” she told www.olympic.org.
“I carried the flag for the Republic of Korea at the YOG, which has a lot of meaning to me. I hope I can also do it at Beijing 2022 if I have good results until then. I also had so much fun after the competition with my team mates from Korea. I was sad to leave, but I’m really happy to have competed in Lausanne.”
You took up figure skating due to the impact of Kim Yu-na, the Olympic champion at Vancouver 2010 and silver medallist at Sochi 2014.
“My mum actually watched Yu-na when she was younger and then I started watching the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010. I remember because she won a gold medal and it was really big in Korea and we watched all of her routines.
“At the time we were living in Singapore but Singapore only has one rink because it’s such a small country, so we went there often and because it was so hot there – I liked the cold and it was good to skate there in hot weather.”
The young Korean also enjoyed staying at the Olympic Village in Lausanne.
“I think it was a very good house for athletes. It was a comfortable way to go to the competition areas. And because it was like the Olympics we could meet new athletes, so there was a really good chance to make friends there, which I did.
“The competition is organised by the IOC and has the feeling of the Olympics. I think it was good for me to see all the young skaters who also want to go to the Olympics one day when they’re older. But now, when they’re young, they could come to the YOG, so it was a really great competition to be at.”
One of the highlights of her stay was meeting the retired Canadian figure skating star Patrick Chan.
“He gave me a Yodli mascot at the ceremony and it was funny. He said that I was an amazing skater, which I was very thankful to hear, and he’s also an amazing skater and I always watched him skate.
“It had great meaning that he was at the YOG in Lausanne, and it made all the figure skaters really happy.”
As for the future, she added: “For now, I just really want to have a clean programme for my next two competitions, keep landing my triple axels and make 210 points more!”