Hong Kong’s Christy Leung dreams of Beijing 2022 with the help of guru to the champions
The figure skater is seeking the aid of Canadian choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne in her attempts to qualify for the Winter Games
Hong Kong’s top figure skater, Christy Leung Yi, is seeking help from Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu’s choreographer as the 14- year-old aims to fulfil her dream of making it to the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
Accompanied by her mother, Katie Leung, the young skater went to the US last month to meet Canadian Shae-Lynn Bourne, a former ice dancing world champion and choreographer for the Japanese Olympic champ, who was the first Asian to win the men’s figure skating title at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Leung and the 22-year-old Hanyu spent a costly week developing a new short programme routine using the song California Dreaming, Mrs Leung said.
“We brought back a new routine which I performed for the first time in Hong Kong and I could feel the judges were very impressed, but of course it’s not 100 per cent ready,” said Leung, who came sixth in the junior women at the Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy at Mega Ice in Kowloon Bay which ended on Saturday.
“My performance was not too bad especially in the opening part of free skating, but then I struggled as I was too eager and overreached. This was the first time I performed in a major event in front of my home crowd.”
The event was won by Rika Kihira, a top Japanese junior who performed a triple axel during her free skating, one of the most difficult movements.