Spotlight on Yebin Mok
By Sylvia. Exclusive to Unseen Skaters. April 2002.

In January, Yebin Mok placed 10th in senior ladies at the 2002 U.S. National Championships, mounting a great comeback from 15th in the short program to finish 9th in the free skate. She opened her free skate with a huge triple lutz, and went on to land 4 more clean triples and demonstrate lovely spins and elegant sensitivity to her "Wild Doves" music. She completed this interview with Unseen Skaters the week before leaving to compete in the junior ladies' event at Triglav Trophy in Slovenia. She will celebrate her 18th birthday on April 19, 2002, while representing the U.S. at this international competition.

Unseen Skaters (UNS): First of all, can you clear up whether you prefer Ye Bin or Yebin? And what does your name mean in Korean?
It's Yebin. Ye means "artist" and bin mean "welcomed guest." Mok means "Harmony."

UNS: When and how did you begin skating?
I started skating at age ten. My friend took interest in skating first, and one day I went with her and I just loved it and kept going with it.

UNS: What have been the most memorable experiences in your skating career so far?
My first regionals [in 1997], when I was in juvenile. I was so in control, having fun out there competing, skating better than I did at practice. I was on fire and I knew it, and knowing that I was so on, knowing that I was going to pull it off, is a memory I'll never forget. And I will also keep this memorable Nationals [in 2002] with me forever because I felt a roller coaster of emotions, that I have never had before.

UNS: What about an embarrassing moment in skating that you can share?
I can't believe I'm gonna tell this story. It's so embarrassing that I don't want to talk about it. But here it goes ... At the Team USA camp of '98 we had to wear black pants or leggings, and during lunch I was sitting with my legs wide open and I found out that I had a hole in the crotch of my leggings, so I went to the restroom to see if I could fix it, but I made it worse and the hole got bigger. We had to skate after lunch. I tried to get out of it by crying but they said I should skate, so I did. Guess what the lesson we had was on? Spirals and camel spins, what a coincidence... I was so embarrassed!

UNS: Please describe your 2002 Nationals experience in your hometown of Los Angeles.
Overall it was a truly amazing and a terrific experience. I learned so much in one week than I do in a whole year. And I wouldn't change one bit of it. The entire week of practice was great. I loved skating and practicing with all the elite skaters on one ice. And I loved the support from the fans who came to cheer us on, it was the coolest feeling.

Honestly, I was numb through all before and after the short. [Editor's Note: Yebin had errors on all 3 of her required jumps and placed 15th of 18 in the short program. She then drew first to skate in the long program two days later.] I wasn't disappointed, I didn't cry or get upset at myself, I was saying to myself, "it just wasn't meant to be." And then it all sank into me what I did, what had happened. And I couldn't hold it in any longer, and I wanted to and tried so hard not to cry in public, but it exploded in the bus ride to the hotel. I cried my eyes out. I was so devastated at that moment. I wanted to hold my breath and wished I wasn't there. I felt like I had let everyone down.

Peter Oppegard, my coach, said I had to skate [the scheduled practice session] that night at El Segundo, two hours after the event was over. My eyes were puffy from crying, and my mom told me not to go and rest up and start tomorrow, but I insisted on going and I told her and told myself that I was going to give it all I've got these last remaining days. And I'm going to try with all my will to pull myself up from the short program. And I went to every single practice and just skated. And I was happy and sad at the same moment. I was very happy just to be skating and I was very sad because I had skated so poorly in the short program and felt so hopeless to be skating. But, in the end, my love for skating won, and I defeated my own enemy and kept on going. In the long, I told myself "just skate," and I did. I was so proud of myself. I was so happy that I was able to show some people, and especially myself, that I can make it happen.

UNS: What are your goals in skating, both short (next season) and long term?
My goals for next season are to be more consistent on my jumps and put decent performances every time I skate. My ultimate, dream goal is to win the Olympic, World, and National titles all in one year.

UNS: What is your "philosophy" when it comes to landing jumps?
#1 pure confidence; believing in yourself is the most important thing
#2 timing; when timing's off, you'll fall or cheat the jump
#3 technique; I would rather fall on a clean jump than land a cheated jump consistently because cheated vs. clean is like vegetables and fruit. It seems similar but it's completely different. And I feel falling on a clean jump is much closer to the real thing than landing cheated jumps consistently.

UNS: What do you consider to be the strongest and weakest aspects of your skating?
I think my jumps are my strong point, and my weakest point is the consistency in them.

UNS: What are your favorite jump, spin, and connecting element to do?
My favorite jump is the lutz, my favorite spin is the layback, and my favorite connecting elements are spread eagles and Ina Bauers.

UNS: Who is your favorite skater and why?
My favorite skater is Alexei Yagudin because he captures everyone's hearts when he skates and I really admire that.

UNS: What are your goals off the ice?
Find what I want to major in [in college], and find what I want in life other than skating. I'm just getting my high school credits completed, and after that I'll be attending community college and then transferring to UC [one of the University of California schools].

UNS: What do you like to do for fun off the ice these days?
I like to listen to music and sketch, put scrapbooks together. And I sing; I love to sing except I don't have the voice.

UNS: What do you like the most about skating that motivates you to keep going day in and day out?
Honestly I don't know what motivates me to skate. I just like skating, I feel very blessed to skate. And I'm happy when I'm skating.

UNS: Can you tell us how your training is going for 2002 Triglav Trophy (April 18-21) in Slovenia and what you hope to achieve there? How has it been adapting your senior programs to junior for Triglav?
Training for Triglav Trophy is going well, but I have to say it wasn't easy getting my butt rolling in spring time. I've never competed this late (or early) before. I'm so excited to be going and my goal for this competition is to skate the two best programs that I can do. I'll be doing the triple loop [required solo jump] in the short program and that's the first element I'll be doing. It's been weird adapting my senior long program to junior length, but nothing really changed, just my resting points have crunched.
[Editor's Postscript: According to Yebin, "my resting points have crunched" means she feels she has less time and/or places in her 3:30 long junior free skate program to rest than she had in her 4 minute-long senior length program.]

Good luck at Triglav, Yebin, and skate great!