Favored women's skater Kim Yu-na brings talent and appeal

Michelle Kwan isn't coming back, and there's no American woman ready to take her place at the Vancouver Olympics.

Get over it.

The Winter Games' glamour sport will be in its usual glamour spot in Vancouver, with live, prime-time coverage for every event — even the snooze-inducing compulsory dance. Between big names making comebacks, the phenomenon that is Kim Yu-na and the friends-and-former-training-partners-turned-rivals, there will be plenty of fodder to keep everyone's favorite Olympic soap opera running.

"Figure skating endures," said David Neal, executive vice president of NBC Olympics. "The Olympics are an international gathering, and that's what you present. It's all about stories."

None will be bigger than Kim's.

The reigning world champion from South Korea is the heavy favorite for gold after dominating women's skating like few others the last two seasons. She's had one loss since the 2008 world championships, and that was in December of that same year. She won the world title with a record score last March and then topped it at the Trophee Eric Bompard, overwhelming a star-studded field that included her old rival Mao Asada and three-time European champion Carolina Kostner.

Her short program score at Skate America was so monstrous it would have made her a contender in the men's event. She lost the free skate to Rachael Flatt but had such a big lead it didn't matter. She struggled again in the short program at the Grand Prix final, but came back to win the free skate and the event.

"She wears the title really well," coach Brian Orser said. "Her confidence is better; she kind of has a little bit of a skip to her step. But when you see her skate, you see her train, see her with all the other kids, you wouldn't know that she's the world champion. She doesn't gloat. She just goes about her business."

As South Korea's best hope for a gold medal in anything besides speedskating, Kim is already a megastar in Asia. Her nickname is "Queen Yu-na," and she needs bodyguards whenever she's in South Korea. She does commercials for everything from bread to mobile phones to cars, and was listed as the 10th-most-popular athlete — in Japan.

U.S. audiences may love rooting for fellow Americans, but Kim has the same kind of appeal that made Katarina Witt so bewitching. Guys who think axels are part of a car will be scrambling for the rewind button after seeing her "Bond Girl" short program.

She comes with a sweet backstory, too. Though Kim has surged ahead in recent months, her rivalry with Asada dates back to their junior days and figures to be rekindled in Vancouver. As superior as Kim has been, the gold is not a given. Oksana Baiul was the last favorite to win the gold medal in 1994, and there will be two other world champions in the Vancouver field, Asada and her Japanese teammate, Miki Ando.

As for the Americans, their streak of winning at least one medal at all but one Olympics since 1952 is in jeopardy. (The lone shutout was in 1964, three years after the entire U.S. team was killed in a plane crash.) No American woman has medaled at the world championships since Kimmie Meissner and Sasha Cohen won gold and bronze in 2006, and neither will be in Vancouver.

Flatt and Mirai Nagasu are talented, but they have little experience and even less international cachet. The 17-year-old Flatt has been to one world championships, finishing fifth last year, while the Olympics will be the first major international event as a senior for 16-year-old Nagasu.

What they lack in results, however, they make up for in personality. Flatt is like the Energizer bunny, juggling training and travel with a courseload that would make a valedictorian weep. If there's a contest for best quote, Nagasu will give Johnny Weir a run for his money.

"We don't have a strong Michelle Kwan or Kristi Yamaguchi to lead us," said Nagasu, who has said it's an "embarrassment" the American women are no longer at the top of their sport. "But I feel that even though we're young, we have big dreams to lead us."