Kim's (former) coach fires back

As we wondered in our first blog, what does Kim Yu-Na have to say about the war of words between her former coach Brian Orser and her management/mother Park Mee-hee?

Let's preface this by saying it is not uncommon for Twitter accounts to be hacked into. But for the first time in about two weeks, "Queen Yu-Na" has tweeted.

@Yunaaaa Would you please stop to tell a lie, B? I know exactly what's going on now and this is what I've DECIDED.

(Prior to an Aug. 11 tweet, she last tweeted Jan. 30 - by no means a frequent user of social media.)

Assuming that "B" is Brian, Kim's Tweet could be the most telling information from this latest skating drama, or very poor timing for her Twitter account to be hacked into.

As news broke this morning, it appeared this was solely an argument between Orser and Kim's management, with Kim an innocent bystander.

This Tweet reverses that.

Meantime, we move on to the latest comments from Orser, which he made to the Toronto Star:

On why he was fired:

"[Kim's mother] just felt that we had not given much attention to Yu-Na, but at the same time she was kind of talking out of both sides of her mouth. She had told us to move forward with other students."

On Kim's reaction to Orser being fired by her mother and management:

"I spoke with [Kim] the other day ... She seems confused about what's going on. Because of all this turmoil with her mother, she doesn't know what's going on. Nor do I. That's what I said to her, ‘I'm a little confused, but it's been a great four years."

It appears that four years of following the strict rules of Kim's mother and management were too much for Orser, who was openly critical of Park Mee-hee in this comment to The Star about the lack of communication with Kim's group since May.

"We were just waiting to get our orders from the mother because that's what we always did. She always told us when they were ready to move in a certain direction and we had a meeting and we got pen and paper out and we did a plan. We never got to that point."

Orser was similarly frustrated in his interview with the Chicago Tribune. Kim's representative Helen Choi emailed the Tribune in response to Orser's claims and painted a much different picture.

"Tribune: He feels insulted and disrespected by having heard about several things...after they happened. Why was he not informed of these things in advance?

Choi: At that time there was no one who cared [about] Yuna. [Choreographer] David Wilson was the only one with whom we can discuss this matter. We had to make a decision by ourselves."

Choi went on to say that Orser was made aware on Aug. 2 of the reasons for the split and that this is simply a coaching change - typical of many elite skaters (even after successful results).

"We could not understand why he keeps saying what is not true to media. We don't know to whom it is helpful...We don't want to do media play, " Choi added.

So let the he said, she said continue.

Aside from the Tweet by Kim, still no word from the Olympic champion herself. Worse still, it is unlikely she will speak with freedom about the situation beyond some pre-prepared statement by her management company's CEO - her mother.

It is hard to imagine a situation where a pretty bow can be placed over this Kim-Orser split and unfortunate that four good years of collaboration (that resulted in an Olympic gold medal) is now overshadowed by a messy ending.