# Forum About Russia Sports and Olympics  Skating, eh?

## Crocodile

Could anyone explain to me how South Korea is the sixth in the list? http://www.vancouver2010.com/
I mean, is there actually winter in South Korea? How do they skate so well? Do they have a culture of skating?

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## sperk

they're good at short track skating, maybe it's big over there.

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## Hanna

I agree it's weird and I thought the same thing when I first came across it.  
But skating is cool, exotic and fashionable in some very hot countries in Asia. 
They have indoors skating rinks which are chilled down and the girls get cute professional skating costumes despite the fact that they can hardly move forward on a pair of skates... They can't resist something cute, an Asian thing..   One Singaporean girl I knew bought a woolly hat and gloves just to use at the ice rink. The usual outdoor temperature there is 30C all year round so there is definitely no other use for winter clothing there.  
I've seen this is Singapore and Malaysia which are a lot hotter than S. Korea though. Northern Japan, North Korea and North China get very cold in the winter and South Korea is not far from there.. But I don't know what climate zone South Korea is in.  
My stepmother is Japanese and she does figure skating -- since childhood.  She's pretty good and won some competitions in Japan. But she is from Hokkaido where winters are quite cold - below freezing in the winter.  *
Britain has an icehockey league actually* --- but it's like "show icehockey" a bit like pro-wrestling. I think they are just showing off, not playing serious ice hockey for real. It looks more like a show.  They are using old American and Canadian players. 
Once I went on a date with a British guy I knew for a while -- he decided to take me skating at an artificially frozen rink near my house. But he couldn't skate!!! He looked hilarious....

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## Оля

I can't believe I was Lysacek's worshipper...    ::   
But, to be just, in the free skating he откатался better than Plushenko.   ::

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## mishau_

Соревнования в женском одиночном катании закончились убедительной победы кореянки Ю-На Ким и новой судейской системы, которая не поощряет исполнение сложнейших элементов, каждое из которых само по себе является событием. Да, кореянка каталась великолепно, да она порхает по льду, как богиня, она артистична, технична и легка, как пушинка. Но ее соперница Мао Асада, прыгавшая Аксель в три с половиной оборота, который многие парни исполняют с трудом, вряд ли должна была отставать от своей соперницы на пять баллов после короткой программы. 
И она плакала. Не потому, что заняла второе место. Она догадывалась, что по новой системе ей при идеальном прокате кореянки отдадут только серебро. А потому, что недостаточно чисто откаталась, подвела тренера, подвела болельщиков. Кто-то может сказать, что это она исключительно из-за серебра. Нет. Два года назад Мао Асада выиграла этап гран-при в Париже, но рыдала так, как будто заняла последнее место. А всё опять из-за недостаточно чистого катания и неоправданного доверия.  
А Плющенко бросился обвинять судей, чиновники стали говорить что, мол это серебро достойно золота и нести прочую пургу. Плющенко даже взгромоздился на золотой пьедестал вроде бы.  ::

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## sperk

> Could anyone explain to me how South Korea is the sixth in the list? http://www.vancouver2010.com/
> I mean, is there actually winter in South Korea? How do they skate so well? Do they have a culture of skating?

 Australian women won both the free style skiing and the half pipe...has a flake of snow ever fallen in Australia??

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## mishau_

I think there must be loads of manufactured skating rings in Australia. In Russia there has not been enough ice for skaters for the last 15 years, except for hockey players.

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