When Kim Yu-na, South Korea’s figure skating sensation, takes to the Vancouver ice for her final programme this week, a nation’s pride will be riding on her 19-year-old shoulders. The near-hysteria back home surrounding her efforts to win an Olympic gold is all the more intense because her closest rival, Mao Asada, is from Japan, the old colonial enemy. In a nation used to seeing itself as an underdog, overshadowed by neighbouring China and Japan and all-but ignored by the rest of the world, sporting victory in an international arena takes on a supercharged significance.
上周，当韩国花样滑冰热门人物金妍儿(Kim Yu-na)登上温哥华冰场表演最后一个节目时，19岁的她肩上背负着一个国家的荣耀。她为夺取奥运会金牌而付出的努力让韩国全国为之几近疯狂，而成绩与她最为接近的对手浅田真央(Mao Asada)来自昔日的殖民者敌人日本，这让韩国民众的情绪更为高涨。这个国家惯于自视为弱者，在邻居manbetx3.0 与日本的光芒之下显得黯然失色，而且几乎完全为世界其它国家所忽视，因此国际体育赛场的胜利被赋予一种异常重大的意义。