[2026.05.19] Kahoku - Nanami Abe, the one who nurtured Yuzuru Hanyu

[yuzurujenn]

*Machine-translation. Inaccuracies exist*

 

2026.05.19

 

Source: https://kahoku.news/articles/20260518khn000058.html (paid)

 

 

Hard work and natural talent: The path to a gold medal dream - Nanami Abe, who coached Yuzuru Hanyu for five and a half years from his elementary school days <The ice accompanist: The one who nurtured Yuzu - Part 1>

 

Nanami Abe (53), head of the Miyagi Figure Skating Club and a resident of Sendai City, nurtured professional skater Yuzuru Hanyu (31), a native of the same city, who later went on to win two consecutive Winter Olympic gold medals. Beginning when he was in elementary school around twenty years ago, she walked alongside him for five and a half years, pursuing the world stage while raising her own children. Looking back now on those turbulent days, what are her thoughts now? This traces the path of the woman who has long supported the figure skating world of Miyagi.

 

Spoiler

Becoming More Mature

 

I started coaching Yuzu (Hanyu) in the autumn of 2006. It was my second year as the main coach after taking over the club from my mentor, Hiroshi Nagakubo. He had just placed third in the Novice A boys’ division at the Japan Novice Championships as a sixth grader in elementary school, and transferred to our club soon afterward.

 

“Sing, Sing, Sing,” which we prepared for the junior international competition Mladost Trophy (Croatia) in April 2007, was the first program I choreographed for him. It’s one of those pieces long used for footwork practice. He always performed it with such enthusiasm and groove, and you could tell he genuinely loved the music, which was why I chose it.

 

There’s a number in the FOSSE Broadway musical where a large group of dancers performs to that song. I used it as a reference. I kept thinking about how to make this tiny, slender boy appear mature and masculine and yet, in a way, still charmingly cute.

 

I remember having him wear a pink shirt and adding a gesture where he sharply tightened his tie, like, “I’m heading out into the city nightlife now.” He won the competition.

 

Never Letting His Guard Down

 

Yuzu had good balance in everything: jumps, spins, and expression. It wasn’t that he was a skater with overwhelmingly greater physical ability than everyone else.

 

As for his jumps, more than anything, I think it was effort. In his case, whatever sport he had chosen, he probably would have seen it through to the end. He almost never let his guard down during practice. Every day, he aimed to become a better version of himself than he had been the day before. You rarely see a child like that.

 

But there was also something innate about him. In figure skating, if you make even one mistake, you fall behind the music. Yet he would connect the transitions leading into the next movement perfectly to the sound. His footwork would carry on as usual, but when there was a particularly striking musical accent, he might respond with a movement of the hands. He truly listened to the music.

 

What makes this sport fascinating is that the music does not simply become background sound. It merges with the skating itself. He was a skater in whom you could clearly see that quality. I would instruct him to “express the music as if it's flowing from your body,” but he seemed to possess that innate ability even before I told him.

 

Forgetting His Gloves

 

In 2012, when Yuzu was a second-year student at Tohoku High School in Sendai, he won the bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships. Before the competition, he injured his right ankle, and after mistakes in the short program, he was only seventh. Even so, I believed he still had a chance at the podium. He was the kind of athlete who somehow gave you this strange certainty that “when it counts, that kid delivers.”

 

His free skate was Romeo and Juliet. All season long, he had been failing the final triple Salchow. He did fall during the program, but he landed the Salchow. The top favorite was scheduled to skate afterward, so I wasn’t thinking about placement at all. Tears welled up simply because I felt, “He did so well.” At that point, it was the best performance he had ever given.

 

Actually, sometimes last-minute troubles can surprisingly lead to good results. During the six-minute warm-up before the free skate, he forgot his gloves, and they only arrived just before his performance. It made me think, “Things like that really do happen, don’t they.”

 

I think every coach carries the hope of “going to the Olympics together.” Of course I felt that too. If there is a skater who could get closer to the Olympics, the coach must share that same determination. That hasn’t changed, then or now.

 

(After those World Championships, Hanyu moved his training base to Canada.)

His dream was to compete at the Olympics and win a gold medal. Looking back now, I believe moving there was necessary for him to achieve that dream. That decision led to where he is today, and I hope he will continue to remain a skater admired by so many people for years to come.

 

 

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About Nanami Abe

Nanami Abe was born in 1972 in Sendai. She graduated from Mishima Gakuen Girls’ High School (now Tohoku Seikatsu Bunka University High School) and from Tohoku Gakuin University. She competed in the Japan Figure Skating Championships in 1990 and 1994. From 1995 to 2001, she performed as a skater in Disney on Ice, and in 2004 served as assistant coach to Shizuka Arakawa, the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics gold medalist from Miyagi, who attended Tohoku High School and later Waseda University. Abe has held her current position since 2005.

 

 

Transcript:

Spoiler

努力と天性　金メダルの夢につながる　羽生結弦さんを小学時代から5年半指導＜氷上の伴奏者　ゆづを育てた阿部奈々美さん・上＞

　宮城フィギュアスケートクラブ代表の阿部奈々美さん（５３）＝仙台市＝は、後に冬季五輪２連覇を果たすプロスケーター羽生結弦さん（３１）＝同市出身＝を育てた。約２０年前の小学時代から５年半を共に歩み、子育てをしながら世界を目指した。激動の日々を振り返る今、何を思うのか。宮城のフィギュア界を支えてきた足跡をたどった。（北村早智里）

大人っぽく　
ゆづ（羽生さん）を教え始めたのは、２００６年の秋でした。師匠の長久保裕先生からクラブを引き継ぎ、自分がメインのコーチになって２年目。彼が小学６年で全日本ノービス選手権男子Ａ３位になり、その直後に移籍してきました。

　０７年４月にあったジュニアの国際大会、ムラドストトロフィー（クロアチア）に向けて作った「シング・シング・シング」が、初めての振り付けです。昔からフットワーク練習で使われる楽曲の一つ。彼はいつものりのりで表現していて、好きなのが伝わっていたことが選曲の理由でした。

　ブロードウェーミュージカル「ＦＯＳＳＥ（フォッシー）」に、大勢のダンサーがこの曲に乗せて踊る演目があります。それを参考にしました。この小っちゃくて細い少年を、どうやって大人の男っぽく、ある意味ではかわいらしく表現できるかと考えました。

　シャツはピンクにしてもらい、「これから夜の街に出かけるよ」という感じでキュッとネクタイを締める振りを入れたのを覚えています。大会は優勝でした。

気抜かない
　ゆづは、ジャンプ、スピン、表現の全てのバランスが取れていました。身体能力がとんでもなく誰よりも高い、という選手ではありませんでした。

　ジャンプについては、一番は努力じゃないですか。彼の場合、どんなスポーツをやっていても、やり遂げたんじゃないかな。練習で気を抜くことが、まずなかったですから。昨日よりも今日の自分と、毎日目標にする。なかなかそういう子はいないものです。

　天性だと感じたものがあります。フィギュアスケートは一つミスをすると、音楽に遅れます。彼は次の動きまでのつなぎを音に合わせるんですよ。足元はいつも通り動いていくけど、印象的な音が一つあると手を動かすとか。本当によく音を聞いている。

　音楽がただＢＧＭになるのではなく、滑りと合致するところがこのスポーツの面白いところ。彼はこれがよく見えるスケーターでした。

私は「自分の体から音が流れているように表現して」と指導しますが、言われる前から持って生まれていました。

手袋忘れる　
　ゆづが東北高校（仙台市）２年の１２年、世界選手権で３位になりました。試合前に右足首を痛め、ショートプログラムはミスもあって７位。でも、表彰台のチャンスはあると思っていました。「あの子は本番やる」という、不思議と確信のようなものを持たせてくれる選手でした。

　フリーは「ロミオとジュリエット」。そのシーズンはずっと、最後の３回転サルコーを失敗していました。途中転倒はありましたが、サルコーは跳べた。その後に最有力選手が演技予定だったので、順位は気にしていません。「よくやった」という思いで涙が出ました。それまでで一番良い演技でした。

　実は、直前でトラブルがあると意外と良かったりするんですよ。フリー前の６分間練習の時は手袋を忘れてしまい、本番直前に届いたんです。やっぱり何かあるんだなと思いましたね。

　「共に五輪へ」という思いは、指導者は皆持っていると思います。私も、もちろん持っていました。五輪に近づけるであろう選手がいるなら、指導者も同じ思いで臨まなければならない。それは今も昔も変わりません。

　（世界選手権後、羽生さんはカナダへ活動拠点を移したが）五輪に出て金メダルを取りたいというのは彼の夢でした。それをかなえるために必要なことだったと、今は思います。それによって今があるし、これからもたくさんの人の憧れのスケーターであり続けてほしいと思います。

　あべ・ななみ　１９７２年、仙台市生まれ。三島学園女子高（現東北生活文化大高）、東北学院大出。９０、９４年に全日本選手権出場。９５～２００１年は「ディズニー・オン・アイス」のスケーターとして活動し、０４年は０６年トリノ冬季五輪金メダリスト荒川静香さん（宮城・東北高－早大出）のサブコーチを務めた。０５年から現職。

阿部さん（左）に基本姿勢を教えてもらう羽生さん（中央）。右は同年代の鈴木真梨さん＝２００８年、仙台市泉区のアイスリンク仙台