South Korean Skater’s Top Almost Falls Off During Her Olympic Routine

The incident happened during South Korea’s figure skating routine. Min, an American citizen skating for South Korea, described the unforgettable experience to Detroit Free Press during her interview.

“Five seconds into the routine, my hook came undone,” the 22-year-old figure skater said. “I was like, ‘Oh no!’ If that comes undone, the whole thing could just pop off. I was terrified the entire program.”

The hook that Min mentioned was the only hook keeping her costume, a vibrant red half top, from falling off. Instead of stopping to adjust her costume, Min bravely continued with the routine.

“I went from the beginning to the end. I didn’t stop because you get a deduction if you stop in the middle of a program. In my head, I was thinking, ‘Is it better to stop and fix it and get the deduction or keep going?’” she told the publication.

Min had to improvise a few of their routine’s moves to make sure her top didn’t fall off during the twisting and turning. She had to force herself to hold her arms back to keep her costume in place, and if she followed the routine and brought her arms together, her top would have slipped.

“This is my first Olympics, our first program and if my top were to come down, that would have been a disaster. I was very nervous that the entire thing was going to come off,” Min said.

At one point of their routine, her costume fell so dangerously low that she had to do something or else all of her effort would go to waste. Luckily, her 24-year-old partner got her back — literally — when they had a moment to secure her costume.

“Anytime she brought her shoulders in, it came down,” Gamelin, said. “I only noticed it halfway through. During our twizzle, it came off her shoulder, all of the way. She had to stop and pull it back up and that cost us a bunch of points. It wasn’t because we were skating poorly.”

In the end, the duo placed ninth out of the 10 teams that competed. They received 51.97 points, while the first place pair, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, got the highest score of 80.51 points, followed by 75.46 points for Team USA’s brother-sister team, Maia and Alex Shibutani.

After the dance, Min thanked all the fans who cheered and supported their performance despite the wardrobe malfunction on her Twitter post.

Featured image screenshot via YouTube / BeatFilms (Left), YouTube / Viral Clips (Right)