Daisuke Takahashi

Alain said:

I am absolutely sure there is a video somewhere of a very young teenish Dai training with a chair near the pool. He is topless there. I saw it, just can't find the link now. Anyone? Should go to the museum too.

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jimeonji said:

So after ionap mentioned old Dai/Kenji interviews I went on a quest to find all of them myself and stumbled upon the precise one from 2007 she mentioned.
Here's the link: http://originallove.livejournal.com/6962.html#cutid1, thanks to the LJ user that translated. The same user has a few other Dai/Kenji interviews translated as well and they're all GOLD.

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1) In the six-minute practice before his SP, he consciously made eye-contact with all the judges every time he skated by them.

2) He lost his cell phone in Vancouver. He searched the trash bin at his practice rink and even went through the garbage pile, but he couldn't find it. Next day he lost his camera case. After that he broke his umbrella and when he tried to fix it he poked his own eye with its pointy end. So much bad luck! But when he went to a Chinese restaurant and broke his fortune cookie open, these were his lucky numbers: 2-16-18-25-27-45.

2-16 was the date of the men's short program. 2-18, you guessed it, was the date of the free program.
2-25 was the ladie's free skate (don't know if this has any particular meaning to him tho), and 2-27 was the gala exhibition.
And on the back of the slip it said: YOU WILL DISCOVER YOUR HIDDEN TALENTS.

3) Shizuka Arakawa invited him to a Beyonce concert. It was mid-season, right after the Finlandia Trophy in Oct. 2009. His coach was against it, but he had a blast. (Arakawa said he was dancing like crazy all by himself.) At the airport leaving for Vancouver, he found a live CD of the Las Vegas show from the same tour and bought it. It was the only CD he brought to Vancouver so he listened to it before FS to concentrate. Beyonce gave him the power to do his best.

4) When he parted with his former coach Nicolai Morozov (Morozov left him for Oda), he was devastated. Since assistant coach Utako Nagamitsu was unknown at the time, everyone advised him to find an established coach overseas. But he rebelled against those voices. He didn't want the "brand" of a famous coach. If he did the right practice he knew he could win. This is why he still trains with Nagamitsu and his team is like a close-knitted family.

5) Daisuke ran away from his hospital during rehab and disappeared for a couple of days in February 2009. His staff worried that he might attempt suicide. (That was how serious the situation was at the time.) He did come back to Nagamitsu in the end but his whereabouts during his "hiding" was a mystery to fans. In this book he confessed that he took a bullet train to Tokyo empty-handed and checked-in at a budget hotel in Shinjuku. He didn't tell anyone about this and turned off his cell phone. He wandered the streets to shop. He was on a spending spree. It was all in spite. He bought so many clothes in those couple of days but doesn't want to wear any of them now.

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-This is the exact song he was listening to just before stepping out on the ice for his free skate. He was also listening to something in Sochi but hasn't said which song so far.

- Three years ago at the Japan Nationals, he opened his performance with a quad. He followed it up with a quad-double. His jumps were so solid that everyone was awed. In addition, he had the expressiveness that underlined his techninque. He was unbeatable. It was two years before the Vancouver Olympics that he marked the highest score in men's skating. He was ranked as the world's top skater for two consecutive years (2007-08). Nagamitsu: "It was as if the music was seeping out of his body. His body did it without him knowing."

- August 2008: Takahashi was at the top of his game. "I am full of hope to win the gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics." But sixteen months before the Olympics, he had to face the worst accident. It was right after the landing when he felt the uncomfortable feeling in his right knee.

- Three months after his return, he was able to get his triple axel back, with the help from Takeshi Honda. Honda: "If the success rate of his jumps gets higher, he would naturally regain his confidence. It's my job to build his jumps so that he would not fail."

- Trainer Norio Watanabe is a reliable man who looks after his mental as well as his physical condition. Takahashi: "This is my trainer, and his other job is to listen to me whine."

- One day in August 2009, he suddenly forgot how to jump. It was so hard to change the take-off timing that his body had gotten used to. Takahashi felt irritated. He didn't have control over his own body. He felt impatient for making the same mistakes. His resentment was directed toward his Coach Nagamitsu. Before the injury, Takahashi had a rather stiff body as a skater. Now his flexible muscles gave more stretch to his skating. On the contrary, he lost the timing of his jumps. Honda saw this one-tenth-of-a-second change in the take off. If he didn't find the new timing, he will never be able to jump the quad again.

- November 2009: In the past five years, he never missed the podium at the Grand Prix series. This time he couldn't make it. Was it impossible to make a comeback after injury? The skating fans were utterly disappointed. The one who was the most upset was Takahashi himself. "It's not a question of winning the medal anymore. I felt I was in deep trouble. I don't have much time left. It's only three months away. Can I really go to the Olympics like this? That's how I'm feeling right now."

- December 2009: Takahashi was beginning to regain his skating during these competitions. His body started to fly naturally into the air. His jumps stretched further and had more beauty than before the injury. He's got it. Everyone on the team felt sure about it, and his place in the Olympic team was confirmed. However, right after that, another nighmare revealed itself in front of him. "I felt nothing but impatience. I even wanted to withdraw. I felt I couldn't enter the competition like this."

- January 2010: Japan's figure skating team was the strongest it has ever been, in both the men's and the ladies' disciplines. Takahashi had big expectations set upon him. "I have been training for the gold these four years." Takahashi was back in form quickly. His steps were smooth and his spins were pretty. He shouldn't be stubborn about his quad, since he was well within reach of a medal without one. Those were the words that reached Team Takahashi. However, Takahashi didn't give it up. He wasn't thinking of making it easy on himself. He had made a promise with himself. He was going to jump the quad at the Olympics. He once marked the world's highest score by landing two quads in his free skate. He wanted to get back to the same level.

- February 2010: After experiencing problems with his boots, Takahashi stepped out on the Olympic rink wearing Takeshi Honda's boots. How many times did he think to himself that he might not make it? These 18 months were a battle with depression. The memories went through his mind. It was the first time in his life to experienced such a thing. "I was almost crying. I did plan to compete at the Olympics, but I was overwhelmed by the fact that I was able to return. I felt really happy that I was able to be here." Save for the failure with the quad it was by far his best performance this season. The sorrow and the joy of the jester inhabited his body. If he had left the quad out of his program, the color of his medal might have been different. But he wasn't the kind of man to do that. It was the first medal for an Asian man to win during the 102 years history in men's figure skating at the Olympics.

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ioanap said:

The Last Rose of Summer, feat Sarah Àlainn (FaOI in Toyama, in good quality)

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ioanap said:

Apparently he was attacked by large amounts of gifts and he needed a lot of buckets to put them in.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs0tYLTCcAE23NI.jpg:large

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ioanap said:

Pics from today's PIW (source)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs4pCWpCYAAyGy6.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6NvfuCEAMI_xm.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6OAJBCEAAPC6c.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6ORMvCUAAGRwt.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6Omw0CEAEIQ7w.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6O4INCIAAEpa7.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6PAujCMAA_10O.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6PSwQCMAAMQtU.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6P0ICCIAEXs8o.jpg:large

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ioanap said:

Group pic of the cast
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bs6W7wsCcAE7Khv.jpg:large

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