SPORTS

Winter Olympics: Korean figure skater Yura Min keeps costume up (this time)

Jeff Seidel
Detroit Free Press
Feb 11, 2018; Pyeongchang, South Korea; Alexander Gamelin and Yura Min (KOR) compete in the Figure Skating-Team-Ice Dance Short Dance event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games at Gangneung Ice Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers-USA TODAY Sports ***Headlines*** Olympics: Figure Skating-Team-Ice Dance Short Dance Olympics: Figure Skating-Team-Womens Short Program

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — This time, Yura Min took no chances.

Min had a costume malfunction when a hook became unfastened in the short dance during the Team Event, so she took no chances on Sunday, while wearing the same costume in the individual competition.

“Oh, it’s all stitched in,” she said. “I went to the costume repair over there and I was like, ‘Stitch me in please.’ So they stitched it in three places, just in case. I put it on first and then she stitched it, so I can’t even get out of it, if I wanted to.”

“It’s on her for life,” said her partner Alexander Gamelin.

Min laughed.

“Yeah, it’s stuck on me forever,” she said.

Yura Min and Alexander Gamelin of South Korea react as their points are posted following their performance in the ice dance, short dance figure skating in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

This time, her costume stayed on, and Min and Gamelin had a fantastic performance, one that left the Korean crowd roaring and both skaters in tears. They scored 61.22 points in the short dance and stand in 16th place. When Min realized that they were in the top 20 and qualified for the free dance, she broke down in tears.

“I was crying and my coach was crying and he was crying,” Min said. “Everybody was crying.”

Min and Gamelin, who train in Novi, have become media darlings in South Korea.
In part, it is because they are representing Korea. But it was also the way Min handled the costume malfunction with so much grace and poise. There were 19 Korean reporters circled around them in the mixed zone.

The hook that held together the costume of Novi-trained ice dancer Yura Min, who skated for South Korea in the team event, came undone early in Min's performance in the short program.

“I really don’t want to be known as that one girl at the Olympics who flashed the entire world,” she said.

Min said she watched the replay and cringed even more. “I was like, 'Oh no, please, please!'” she said. “They played it in slow motion and I was like, ‘Why does this have to be in slow motion right now?' In the fast motion, you couldn’t really see anything. But in the slow motion, you could see everything, so I was like, ‘Ahhhhh!’” 

More:Why two American ice dancers from Novi will compete for South Korea in Winter Olympics

Min’s parents emigrated from South Korea before she was born in Torrance, Calif. 
And Gamelin became a naturalized South Korean citizen in July, making him eligible to compete in the Olympics.

They walked in the Opening Ceremony with the unified Korean team.

“Before we got here, we expected to feel pressure here, especially the pressure to do well in front of the home crowd,” Gamelin said. “But it’s been the opposite. This home crowd has made us feel so comfortable and relaxed, really with us. It wasn’t just us on the ice, it was the whole country.”

As they performed, the Korean crowd clapped and cheered.

“It’s amazing,” Min said. “Just qualifying for the Olympics was one of our goals. Then, qualifying for the free dance was one of our goals. To be able to do it was amazing.”

Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel is covering the 2018 Winter Olympics as part of the USA Today Network. Contact him at jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/.