South Korea¡¯s figure skating queen Yuna Kim said Saturday that the experience of lighting the Pyeongchang Olympic cauldron was ¡°emotional¡± and admitted she had been scared of dropping the torch.
Kim, who captured gold at the Vancouver Games in 2010 and controversially took silver in Sochi four years later, performed a brief skate routine at Friday¡¯s opening ceremony before receiving the torch and sending flames shooting up to the cauldron.
¡°I skated for 10 years but that was the first time I¡¯ve skated so high up,¡± the 27-year-old told reporters.
¡°When you¡¯re on the ice competing you don¡¯t really see the crowd. You¡¯re just thinking about not falling, you just focus on your skating.
¡°But that was the first time I¡¯ve done anything in front of so many people. When I lit the flame it was a little surreal. I felt sort of numb with emotion.¡±
Kim, a national idol in South Korea, took the flame from two members of the joint Korean women¡¯s hockey team ¡ª Chung Su Hyon of North Korea and Park Jong-ah of South Korea at the top of a flight of 120 stairs.
Kim revealed that the torch handover had not been rehearsed.
¡°I was worried there might be some problem,¡± she said. ¡°When my eyes met the North Korean athlete¡¯s I just smiled. But I was nervous. When you¡¯re competing you can go back and make up for mistakes.
¡°But you only have one chance to light the Olympic flame and the whole world is watching. It all happened so quickly, it was kind of surreal.¡±
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