Ice and hope in Seoul

SEOUL – When the money runs short and hopes are low, there’s nothing like sitting around the television and watching a round of … figure skating. At least, that’s how a lot of South Koreans feel these days.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the audience rating of the Four Continents Figure Skating Championship held in Vancouver, Canada, neared 30 percent in Korea, as people eagerly watched 18-year-old Kim Yu-na, a national star. In Korea this month, this animated clip of Kim was one of the most popular videos on YouTube:

She’s even more popular in real life. The teenager’s "Figure Queen" title is often followed by words such as hope, dream, success and national pride and Kim has become a source of uplift for South Koreans troubled by rising unemployment and a dire forecasts for the economy.

So what explains the young skater’s popularity?

"I think it’s half talent and half effort. You can’t find your talent properly if you don’t try," Kim told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency in an interview after winning the Four Continents championship.

But globalization is also playing a role, says professor Kang Joon-ho of Seoul National University. "In the past, people thought the basketball players they saw in Korea were all there was to see. But as they start getting exposed to things like the NBA, they realize there’s a whole new world out there," he says.

As a result, South Korea has seen a new chapter of stars catapulting to fame from a variety of sports: golf, soccer, swimming and figure skating.

One of these new superstars is Park Tae-hwan, who won Korea’s first-ever gold medal in swimming at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is now a leading product endorser in Korea.

As people here look for rays of hope in the midst of the rough economy, many are reminded of the tumult in the late 1990s caused by the Asian financial crisis.

Back then, golf was the national salve. Pak Se Ri awed the country by winning the U.S. Open and opened the doors to a generation of female golfers. Players such as Kim Mi Hyun, Grace Park and rookie Shin Jiyai would follow in Pak’s footsteps, squaring off with other global golf stars like Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb.

Many see Kim Yu-na, who is the first Korean to win an International Skating Union (ISU) championship, playing the role Pak did in the past — part national hero, part pitchwoman. Kim’s young face has graced ads for banks, milk, water, school uniforms, and other products across Korea.

But catch her while you still can. Kim is expected to step back from public appearances so she can gear up for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

By then, let’s all hope the global economic crisis will be over and Koreans can also obsess once again about other matters, such as the size of their paychecks and the level of the Seoul stock market.

For more on the global economic crisis: