North Korean Pairs Skating

[starrynight]

I was just watching the North Korean pair team of Ryom Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik at IdF and I was very impressed by how polished and truly international stage ready they are for a pairs team that lives in a closed off country.

What do we know about the North Korean pairs training? Do they have a centralised training system? Where did they get their knowledge of how to coach pairs to such a high level from? I've heard of the old stories of Xue Shen and Zhao Hongbo's coach Yao Bin having to learn pairs off still photographs as no one in then Communist China had seen world level pairs in person before.

Are there any more North Korean pairs? Surely a fair bit of skating training / talent scouting must be happening in North Korea to produce a pair of that quality? I'm also interested in the fact that there seems to be no issue with the North Korean pair skating to what could be classified as Western bourgeois music.

 

[RoseRed]

Meagan Duhamel has talked about this quite a bit. As has Bruno Marcotte in a couple of interviews. I don't have any links, but one place Meagan discussed this was on TSL. They know a bit because last summer before the Olympics, Ryom/Kim came with their coach and a handle/translator to train in Montreal for a couple of months. Bruno was with them and their coach at Nebelhorn and the Olympics, and Meagan helped them train for Worlds at the Olympics after the event was done. She said they expressed that they wanted to come back to Montreal, and maybe bring another team too, but it didn't happen.

In the TSL Olympic pairs recap Meagan said that their coach spent time in Russia, and that they told her that they watch videos of Chinese pairs online. They were also told that there was a new junior team with a boy with a 3A and quad and a girl with all her triples, and they were putting them together into a pairs team. She also said that they invited Bruno and Meagan to come to North Korea to coach and that there are a lot of skaters there. Apparently, Elladj Balde has gone there before to perform in this big annual skating show they do and he told them they have a lot of good skaters. Duhamel/Radford were invited to perform in the show before, but it conflicted with 4CC. They want to do it this year she said.

 

[Sylvia]

Meagan Duhamel has talked about this quite a bit. As has Bruno Marcotte in a couple of interviews.

https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...korea-nyt-articles.101937/page-3#post-5242445

Are there any more North Korean pairs?

One North Korean junior pair competed on the JGP this fall (placed 14th at Czech Skate): http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00106303.htm

 

[starrynight]

Meagan Duhamel has talked about this quite a bit. As has Bruno Marcotte in a couple of interviews. I don't have any links, but one place Meagan discussed this was on TSL. They know a bit because last summer before the Olympics, Ryom/Kim came with their coach and a handle/translator to train in Montreal for a couple of months. Bruno was with them and their coach at Nebelhorn and the Olympics, and Meagan helped them train for Worlds at the Olympics after the event was done. She said they expressed that they wanted to come back to Montreal, and maybe bring another team too, but it didn't happen.

In the TSL Olympic pairs recap Meagan said that their coach spent time in Russia, and that they told her that they watch videos of Chinese pairs online. They were also told that there was a new junior team with a boy with a 3A and quad and a girl with all her triples, and they were putting them together into a pairs team. She also said that they invited Bruno and Meagan to come to North Korea to coach and that there are a lot of skaters there. Apparently, Elladj Balde has gone there before to perform in this big annual skating show they do and he told them they have a lot of good skaters. Duhamel/Radford were invited to perform in the show before, but it conflicted with 4CC. They want to do it this year she said.

Thank you!

That's very interesting. I think with the internet (although I understand the international internet is basically blocked in North Korea, but sports officials would be able to get videos for training) things are very very different to when China was trying to build a pairs skating system while it was closed off from the world.

Not like when Yao Bin and Luan Bo turned up to their first World Championships in Dortmund having never seen an inside skating rink and were so intimidated they were afraid to get onto practice ice and then didn't even know how to use the full size of the rink.

I had figured that their coaches were spending time abroad learning about the sport.

I am very interested about the other pair team with the boy with the quad and the 3A - interesting that they would put him in a pair when his jumping ability might be more suited to singles? But if she has all her triples then maybe they are planning on trying to do something crazy with the jumping/throw potential of pairs skating. Or maybe North Korea just really likes pairs due to the impressiveness of the discipline.

 

[morqet]

The last North Korean skaters I remember seeing before Ryom/Kim was another pair that were sent to Worlds in 2012. They made it through qualifying but finished last in the SP. I do remember seeing them and their coaches in the stands for most of the rest of the event, and the coaches were often videoing other skaters - I guess it was one of the easiest ways to show the people they were working with back in North Korea what high level skating should look like.

 

[Seerek]

https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...korea-nyt-articles.101937/page-3#post-5242445

One North Korean junior pair competed on the JGP this fall (placed 14th at Czech Skate): http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00106303.htm

Correct, before switching to pairs, Kum Chol Han had placed top 10 in men's singles at a Junior Grand Prix plus had a couple bronzes in Junior Men at Asian Open Trophy. Not sure whether he managed a clean quad in competition, but he definitely had triple axels.