Paul Chiasson
Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na has moved to California from Toronto to train, but she has other things on her mind at the moment than finding a new coach: skating in a big ice show.
Kim, who parted ways with Canadian coach Brian Orser last month, is now training at the East West Ice Palace in Artesia, Ca., just outside Los Angeles.
Her management company AT Sports, led by her mother, Park Meehee, said Kim has not yet found a coach, and that her stay at the Ice Palace is temporary.
It's a handy stop for her next gig. First, the South Korean-born skater will perform, not compete. Tickets went on sale on Tuesday for her ice-show extravaganza that will take place for two nights on Oct. 2 and 3 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The show features nine-time U.S. champion Michelle Kwan, who hasn't skated in front of a U.S. crowd in more than four years. Kwan's hometown is Los Angeles, and Kim won her first world title at the Staples Center and has been made an honorary citizen of Los Angeles.
The Ice Palace in Artesia is a top-notch skating club with coaches such as U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Famer Peter Oppegard, his wife Karen Kwan-Oppegard (sister of Michelle), and Naomi Nari Nam, a 1999 U.S. women's silver medalist, who eventually switched to pairs skating and won a national bronze medal before injuries ended her career.
For the past several years, the Ice Palace used to be the home of Chinese coach Li Mingzhu, who coached China's first world figure skating champion, Lu Chen, who won in 1995. However, Li has just signed a two-year contract with an option for another two years to coach China's figure skating team leading up to the 2014 Olympics.
Li left California for China in mid-July and therefore would not be available to coach Kim, should Kim remain at the club.
California is also the home of master coach Frank Carroll, who guided Kwan for most of her career. Carroll won his first Olympic medal in Vancouver last February with student Evan Lysacek, but he also trains rising U.S. star Mirai Nagasu, who was fourth at the Olympics, and therefore a competitor to Kim.
After Kim parted ways with Orser at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, she moved to the nearby Granite Club to train temporarily with retired Canadian ice dancer Shae-Lynn Bourne, who choreographed her short program.
According to Kim's management company, a rift between the skater and Orser began when the rumours started that Mao Asada - Kim's archrival from Japan - was coming to train with him, too.
"Ever since Orser was offered a job to coach another skater, we had an awkward relationship," AT Sports said in a release.
Orser has said that he would not coach Asada, but it's a moot point now. Asada plans to train at home in Japan with top coach, Nobuo Sato, a pioneer in Japanese skating, whose daughter, Yuka Sato, won a world figure skating championship in 1994.
Sato is known for teaching skaters excellent skills. His students tend to skate with great speed on deep, smooth edges. He also coaches promising men's skater Takahiko Kozuka, who will be a likely contender for the next Olympic gold medal in Sochi, Russia.
For the past couple of years, Asada had been working with Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova, but Asada's career sputtered in her hands. Now that Asada is with Sato, and at home, she may be more of a threat to Kim.
Kim's show in Los Angeles features skaters such as Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, as well as Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China. It includes French star Brian Joubert, German pair world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy and, just to spice things up, South Korean singing star Younha.