[2022.01.26] Noriko Shirota - Just a Jump, Yet So Much More: The Weapon That Brought Gold Medals to Japanese Figure Skating

Info:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B09R1RWHCN

https://ebookstore.sony.jp/title/10659687/

From Midori Ito's triple axel to Yuzuru Hanyu's unprecedented quadruple axel, this book, written by an author who has long been active behind the scenes as the head of the Japan Skating Federation's strengthening program and an international judge, chronicles the history of Japanese figure skating techniques. Midori Ito, Shizuka Arakawa, Miki Ando, Mao Asada, Daisuke Takahashi, Yuzuru Hanyu, Shoma Uno, Yuma Kagiyama... Behind the rise of Japanese figure skating to the top of the world was the weapon of "jumps," a highly advanced technique that made use of the unique characteristics of the Japanese people.

<Table of Contents>

Introduction

-The Best Jump Is the Ultimate Weapon

-From the perspective of a former international judge

-What television commentators don't say

-Can Yuzuru Hanyu achieve three consecutive Olympic titles?

Chapter 1: Why Have Japanese Skaters Become Able To Win?

-The Essence of European Culture

-“Rome Was Not Built in a Day”

-The Significance of the Emergence of Kristi Yamaguchi

-What Yuzuru Hanyu Needed at That Time

-Lobbying Efforts to Keep Promoting Japan to the World

-So That the World Would Know the Athletes' Ability and Their Character

-Coaches Who Know the World

-Shizuka Arakawa's Road to Olympic Gold

-The Emergence of Japan's “Gold Coach”

Chapter 2: The "Winning Formula" For Japanese Skaters And Jumps Established By Midori Ito

-The Only One to Meet the Rigorous Requirements

-The Six Types of Jumps

-The Triple Axel from a Counter Turn

-Beautiful Rotations

-Midori Ito at the NHK Trophy at Age 11

-The Launch of the “Midori Ito Project”

-The Battle Against Injuries

-Struggling with Compulsory Figures, the Foundation of Figure Skating

-Just a Jump, Yet So Much More

-Lucinda Ruh's Unprecedented Fast Spins

-The Legendary Free Skate Performance in Paris

-From the Triple Axel to the Quadruple Axel

Chapter 3: Shizuka Arakawa's Gold Medal and the “All-Around Strength” Built by Her Rivals

-The Emergence of a New “Gold Medal Contender”

-Switching Coaches to Galina Zmievskaya

-The Mentality for Victory

-Finally Intervening in the Selection of a Coach

-The Road to Finishing Fourth at the Salt Lake City Olympics

-A Gold Medal Won Through the All-Around Strength of Team Japan

-The Weakness of a Two-Time World Champion Prodigy

-The 2011 World Championships: Demonstrating Maturity as a Skater

-A First-Year Participant at the Camp for Discovering Promising New Talent

-Rivalry Showdown

-The Road to the Gold Medal

-The Ina Bauer Added to the Program at the Last Minute

-Daisuke Takahashi's Brilliant Footwork

-Why Is Blue the “Winning Color”?

Chapter 4: Mao Asada and Yuna Kim

-Learning the Brilliance of Yuna Kim from Rinkside

-A National-Scale Development Project

-The Direct Showdown at the World Junior Championships

-Brian Orser as the Overall Producer

-One World Record Score After Another

-One of a Kind: A True Genius

-The Ultimate Battle in Vancouver

-The Aftermath: When the Curtain Falls

Chapter 5: Yuzuru Hanyu's “Talent for Winning”

-The Third Skater Selected for Development

-The Okinawa Training Camp That Broke the Stagnation

-A True Step Up to the Senior Level

-The Legendary Night in Nice

-Departure for Toronto

-A Reprimand on a Night in Paris

-Finally Seizing the Champion’s Crown!

-The Established “Performance for Winning”

Chapter 6: Yuzuru Hanyu's Gold Medal and His Consecutive Olympic Titles

-The Strategy Behind Choosing the Short Program for the Team Event

-A Stunning Short Program and a World-Record Score

-Patrick Self-Destructs: The Fear of the Olympics

-The First Gold Medal for a Japanese Man—and What Came After

-The Complete Absolute Champion: “The World of Yuzuru Hanyu”

-Poor Physical Condition After Achieving the Triple Crown

-His Determination to Continue Competing

Chapter 7: The Post-Hanyu Generation and the Challenge of the Quadruple Axel

-A Performance That Set World-Record Scores in Both the Free Skate and Overall Total

-Romantic-Baroque style

-Shoma Uno: Performing Four Types of Quadruple Jumps

-Yuma Kagiyama: Jumps Full of Infinite Possibilities

-The Impact of Competition Cancellations Due to COVID-19

-Hanyu vs. Nathan: A Direct Showdown

-The Potential of the Quadruple Axel

-Calculations of the Score If the Quadruple Axel Is Successfully Landed

-Hanyu’s Winning Method

Afterword

<Author Profile>

Noriko Shirota ● Born in Tokyo in 1946. Active as a figure skater in women's singles and ice dance. Won the All Japan Championships in ice dance twice in a row. After retirement, she served as the head of the Japan Skating Federation's figure skating strengthening program from 1994 to 2006. She played a leading role in Shizuka Arakawa's first gold medal win for Japan at the 2006 Turin Olympics. She holds an ISU (International Skating Union) referee and judge qualification and has served as a judge at the Olympics and World Championships for many years.