Team Japan

[Anni]

  On 11/19/2021 at 9:05 AM, sweetwater said:

Interview with Shun Sato by Hochi Shimbun

https://hochi.news/articles/20211116-OHT1T51179.html?page=1

 

A rough translation

  Reveal hidden contents

Shun Sato (17 years old, belonging to Fuji Corporation), who is aiming at an Olympic berth for Beijing2022 with the difficult quadruple jumps in his arsenal, gave an online interview to Sports Hochi until 16th this month. He is a talent who has won the title at JGPF2019 as the fourth Japanese man after Takahiko Kozuka, Yuzuru Hanyu, and Shoma Uno. The 17-year-old who admires Hanyu, and has set his goal in competing at the Olympics, is now trying to haul in the ticket to his dream stage, making his growth in his second senior year his confidence.

(Interviewed and edited by Megumi Takagi and Reika Kobayashi)

 

Sato has a vivid memory of the moment when the Olympics has become his goal. It was during Sochi2014. He was staring at the TV screen. Hanyu, a fellow Sendai native, became the first Japanese man to win the Olympic gold medal. Sato, who was ten years old at that time, was moved tremendously.

 

"The performance made me think, "I should aim for the Olympics, too." I have always been admiring him and have been hoping to do my best to be like him. I want to imitate his attitude toward training. I still cannot train that much without losing my concentration. I want to be able to maintain focus in my training.

 

He landed a quad Lutz at JGPF2019 and stood on top of the world. This season, he has included a quad Flip in addition to Lutz and toe loop in his FP. It was Hanyu who supported him to do so, saying, "If you can do Lutz, you will also be able to do Flip." Sato treasures the pendant Hanyu gave him when he was in kindergarten. Cherishing the words of the skater he respects in his heart, he competes in this Olympic season with a difficult jump layout that includes four quads of three types.

 

"I could believe that I would be able to do Flip because Lutz was more difficult," he said. "I felt pretty good when I gave it the first try in practice in May. Jumps are my weapon. I have always been loveing them and have been practicing them a lot."

 

At Skate America in October, he decided to compete despite having injured his left shoulder during the official practice. He stuck to doing Lutz, his weapon. In free skating, he attempted four quadruple jumps including the Lutz, and finished in fourth place.

 

"I thought about withdrawing as well, but I couldn't let everything I had done come to nothing, so I decided to try my best. My coach (Tadao Kusaka) told me, "Only you know your condition, so I'll leave the decision to you," so I said that I wanted to skate through the short program first. In that competition, I could skate with top skaters and gained a lot from it."

 

When he was in the first grade of elementary school, he got affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and couldn't skate for three months. He moved to Tokyo with his mother and resumed skating in Kawagoe, Saitama, with the help of Keiko Asano, his current head coach. There, he had a fateful encounter with Coach Kusaka, too.

 

"At that time, I was worried so much and badly wanted to skate because it was when I was becoming able to land jumps. It was a critical time for my skating. I think having moved to Saitama and found my coaches enabled me to have come this far. I trust them very much."

 

It is his second season as a senior skater. His efforts in building physical strength paid off, and he has become more expressive and consistent in executing jumps. Beijing Olympics next year is now within the range of him, but he is focusing on putting his all into each competition.

 

"At the moment, I think it is more important to do well in each competition than to focus my attention on the Olympics. I rather feel that I want to do my best in an upcoming competition than feel, like, "It's Olympics!""

 

He is taking part in GP France from 19th with Yuma Kagiyama, one of his peers.

 

"I have a strong feeling that I want to win (against Kagiyama) at some point. I want to do my best to skate clean and go up the ranks."

 

Following the footsteps of Hanyu, who he admires while improving himself through friendly rivalry continuing from his junior era, Sato strives for another height on the world stage.

 

Expand  

 

Thank you @sweetwaterfor the translation. I wish him Good luck for the GP in France. 

[Anni]

Zoom meeting with Mai

Post from David Wilson on instagram:  "Grateful we have this technology but wishing I could jump trough the screen to Japan".

 

[sweetwater]

  On 11/19/2021 at 11:38 AM, Anni said:

Zoom meeting with Mai

Post from David Wilson on instagram:  "Grateful we have this technology but wishing I could jump trough the screen to Japan".

 

Expand  

Cute  And it is interesting how they work together remotely.

[sweetwater]

Interview with Mone Chiba by Takeshi Sakagami of Asahi Shimbun
https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASPCK71KSPCKUTQP025.html
As this article is partially behind a paywall, I can't share a translation, but it says Mone is now practicing 4T, coached by Soshi Tanaka, who had been Yuzu's jump coach before he moved to Canada. It seems that at the moment, she can rotate but cannot control the momentum on landing.
Looks like she didn't know that Yuzu was a great skater when she, as a little girl, was playing tag on the ice with him. 

[Melodie]

Costumes by Satomi-san this season - part 2 (Note: These are taken from her Twitter account so most likely they are hers. Anyway, all hail the queen of versatility. 

 

 

 

Bonus (a bit off-topic): Beverly Zhu 

 

 

 

 

 

[Melodie]

Costume by Satomi Ito this season (part 3)

 

 

 

[Guest turquoiseblue]

Congratulations to the Junior national medallists 

 

[SuzyQ]

Future I expect 

 

 

[Melodie]

 

 

 

[surimi]

lolz... JSF grandpas don't seem to realize that you can't make people love a skater, and you can't create charisma for skaters who lack it. Points aren't what makes a skater a star. That said, we all have our opinions, and mine is that the entire young wunder trio bores me to tears (Kagiyama, Shun, Miura), while there are many out there that love one or more of these, and would consider my own favorites boring. And that's fine. But I still hate politicking.

[Melodie]

  On 11/22/2021 at 5:07 PM, surimi said:

lolz... JSF grandpas don't seem to realize that you can't make people love a skater, and you can't create charisma for skaters who lack it. Points aren't what makes a skater a star. That said, we all have our opinions, and mine is that the entire young wunder trio bores me to tears (Kagiyama, Shun, Miura), while there are many out there that love one or more of these, and would consider my own favorites boring. And that's fine. But I still hate politicking.

Expand  

JSF is JSF cos they are dumb LOL. The most charismstic male skaters Japan has still are so far the older ones IMO (Yuzu, Dai) and those who have the most presence on the ice are still these guys + Shoma. They have these qualities even when they were much younger. The current wunderkids dont quite have it just yet. 

[Guest turquoiseblue]

Wakaba Higuchi about her programmes, goals and 3A:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWqz8SUIwJm/

 

  Quote

Towards the Nationals I will not add difficulty but improve the quality and aim for 145 points [in FS] and perfect performance.
Four years ago, when I tried to qualify for OG, I ran out of steam before the Nationals. I learned a lot since, I am focusing on being injury free, little by little, not going 120% into every competition. This season I am improving after each event. The SP was not as great, but today's FS is a good step forward. My focus now is on perfect performance and bringing the next peak after that. But, of course, I would have liked to take part in the GPF.

Expand  

 

[Anni]

Excerpts from Shun's interviews in "Kenjis room" (Translation)

 

 

 

 

More here:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/b611d3480b483aed9b4c4f6045956b5529d6613c

 

[sweetwater]

Kazuki Tomono after Rostelecom Cup FS 

"I am happy to have won a medal, but not like the last time, I feel kuyashii even though I am on the podium, and I am surprised by that. I skated while knowing that I had a chance to win. As well as skating last, it was a new experience for me, and I could stay calm despite that. (Not like the last time,) I won the position on the podium this time with my own ability, so I want to give myself a pat on the back."

 

"This competition has become a good experience for me. As to memories... Do we have a gala tomorrow? Am I going to skate there? (Laughs) I still have the gala, so I want to show off my good points there to the full and enjoy skating before going back to Japan. I took a walk and thought Sochi was a nice place blessed with beautiful sceneries. I also want to imprint these sceneries in my memories before going back to Japan."

[luvsk8]

The single events in this year Nationals will be bloodhell!

Go Shun and Kazuki, just slap JSF by beating their favourites!