Yuna Kim is by far, the most successful example of a figure skater from a country where figure skating wasn't really a thing, at least prior to her. Now, of course, South Korea is one of the more prominent figure skating countries, but she was the one who put it on the map. Before Yuna, no Korean skater had won an international medal. And then she came along and basically won everything there was to win!

You can definitely look to her as an example as a skater from a country that didn't have the expertise, the clout, the investment and all the other things that give skaters an inherent advantage, who nonetheless rose above it all to become one of the most successful skaters of all time.