Asian Sistas at the Olympics

So maybe there aren't very many Asian Girl Professors in the world, but there certainly seems to be a lot of world class Asian Girl Figure Skaters! Last night's Ladies' short program showcased several Asian women who seriously rocked the ice.

Let's start with South Korean superstar Kim Yu-Na (pictured). Holy crap, this woman is something else. She's a powerhouse athlete, a charismatic performer, AND she's friggin' gorgeous. And I love that she chose to channel James Bond in her program. She is, hands down, the best figure skater in the world right now, but let's not forget the other stars of the night: Japan's Mao Asada, who is poised to be Kim's toughest competitor and was the only skater last night to do a triple axel, also nailed her program. And the truly adorable Mirai Nagasu did the United States proud, delivering a clean performance that landed her 6th place. The 16-year-old, who gave herself a nosebleed spinning herself so hard, is definitely one to watch in future Olympic games.

Of course, these women (and as much as I like using the word "Girl" in this blog, I do appreciate that the commentators are calling them "women") aren't the first Asian women to make it to the Olympics. I was a huge fan of Kristi Yamaguchi growing up, and up until last night I was convinced that I would never be interested in figure skating or the Olympics again now that Michelle Kwan is no longer competing. The last couple of decades also produced Chen Lu (Olympic bronze medalist and the first figure skater to ever medal at the Olympics for China), Midori Ito (Olympic silver medalist and first woman to land a triple/triple combination and triple axel in competition) and Yuka Sato (world champion who competed in the Olympics twice). But this year perhaps marks the first that could feature an all-Asian podium. And though I'm rooting for Joannie Rochette, the Canadian skater who admirably delivered a solid performance in spite of the fact that her mother just passed away a few days ago, seeing my Asian sistas take gold, silver and bronze would be pretty fantastic.

It is worth noting, of course, that it's not just in women's figure skating that we've been seeing serious Asian representation. Daisuke Takahashi took the silver in the men's competition. (Japan's team has been generally solid-- The country was able to secure three slots for the women's and men's competitions, and all of their competitors are landing in the top 10.) Chinese-Canadian Patrick Chan got 5th place. In pairs, Chinese teams Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo and Pang Qing/Tong Jian took gold and silver. And as a side, we'd might as well include speed skating in this discussion, given that it's a sport that has already featured an all-Asian podium this year (or almost all-Asian, we wanna get technical about Apolo Anton Ohno and J.R. Celski's hapa-ness). Asians are dominating the ice. Ooh, yellow terror, bring it on.

So why do Asians appear to be doing so well in skating? The phenomenon is a bit of a puzzle to me. (Given that we see very few Asians in any of the other winter sports, it's almost as if figure skating is the equivalent of my high school's badminton team. I guess that makes speed skating the tennis team.) Articles like THIS ONE attribute to the success of Asian folks in figure skating to the fact that they are small and light, "like nymphs" (quote brought to you by Frank Carroll, who coached Michelle Kwan and is currently coaching Mirai Nagasu) and are products of Hardass Asian Parenting (a term coined by the peeps over at DISGRASIAN, who like to trace results of this parenting strategy). It's too bad my parents weren't bigger hardasses. Maybe I could have been an Olympic figure skater. Damn American permissiveness and "self esteem."

Maybe Asians in Olympic Figure Skating could be a research topic someone could take up. Too bad I haven't taken it up, otherwise my spending my evenings watching the Olympics and writing about it could be justified as "working on my dissertation."