Kim blossoms in short program

She was an upset winner at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships last year. She was an upset winner at the Grand Prix Final last December.

So maybe it shouldn’t be an upset if Kim Yu-na of South Korea wins the senior world title today, except there was considerable doubt about her ability to skate well here -- or at all -- because of injuries.

“Today was the first day she didn’t have any pain in practice,” Kim’s coach, Brian Orser, said Friday. “We were down to the wire.” And then Kim, 16, delivered a performance that may be remembered as the moment the sport’s latest great talent began to command the world stage.

“She is always astonishing,” Orser said after Kim won the short program Friday with the highest score in the five-year history of the sport’s new judging system.

With 71.95 points, Kim bettered the mark of 71.12 set by U.S. skater Sasha Cohen at a Grand Prix event in 2003.

“The score was much higher than I expected,” said Kim, who can become the first Korean to win a senior world medal.

Reigning world champion Kimmie Meissner of the United States skated as well as she could and finished fourth, 7.28 points behind Kim going into today’s free skate.

“For me, it’s more important that I did a good program,” said Meissner, who also trails Miki Ando of Japan by 3.31 points and Carolina Kostner of Italy by 2.48. “I know I’ve got a lot of stuff I have to work on.

“There’s a lot of good competition out there, but I think I’m a pretty strong opponent too.”

The U.S. team was assured of avoiding a medal shutout at worlds for the first time since 1994 when ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto won a bronze that neither expected after making two significant errors in Friday’s final. They finished on the podium for the third straight year when the two teams with a chance to beat them faltered.

“I guess we dodged a bullet on that one,” Agosto said.

There was no place to duck in the women’s short program. Six of the top 10 finishers scored personal bests in a competition so strong a triple-triple jump combination was necessary to make the top four. Never before have so many women landed triple-triple combinations in a short program.

Japan’s Mao Asada, another 16-year-old making a much-anticipated senior world debut, botched the second part of her triple-triple combination but finished fifth because the rest of her skating was exceptional. Asada is 10.63 points behind Kim, who gasped in amazement when she saw her score.

“I’ll let her enjoy this a little bit,” Orser said as Kim ran the interview gantlet in the mixed zone. “Then we have to get her feet back on the ground.”

Kim took possession of the ice with dramatic gestures and expressions as she interpreted a tango. She used her long arms to full effect, jumped with a quality rewarded by remarkably high grades of execution and spun far better than her norm.

Not bad for someone with a balky back.

Kim has inflammation in the hip joint and a bulging disk in her back, injuries that allowed her to practice only intermittently as she prepared for her senior world debut. So she had the aches and pains of a senior citizen and the look of a kid until her braces came off a month ago.

Kim flouted her pain and youth Friday, skating with power, elegance and maturity.

“She’s feisty, and she loves to compete,” Orser said. “Now that she is a senior woman, she has stepped up to the plate and is skating accordingly. When her braces came off, she got this whole new confidence, and it’s really obvious.”

Three years ago, Kim told a Korean newspaper, “Frankly, I hate skating. It’s so tiresome. I’m sick of it.”

Now she can’t get enough.

Kim began training with Orser last summer, spending four months in Toronto, returning to South Korea, then coming back to Canada a month ago. Orser said Kim, her mother and physical therapist plan to move permanently to Toronto in May.

She moved everyone in the world who saw her Friday.

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Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.