Akiko Suzuki | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Akiko Suzuki

evangeline

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
(BTW, I thought Ashley's PCS in the LP was inexplicably low, too, although she was further behind so it would have required a much larger swing in PCS for bronze).

Ashley's problem was that she did not skate in the final group. Alena also has more international cred. Sadly, that matters....I think it's a travesty that Ashley placed behind Alena on EVERY SINGLE COMPONENT of PCS, even Transitions and Choreography. :rolleye:
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Because the Russians wanted a medal! A good one! Japanese ladies were doing too well in spite of Mao's stumbling.
 

christinaskater

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
From http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.f33a8ccfe02bb3eb957fafaeaeaf68bf.331


Figure skater Akiko looks to future
(AFP)
NICE, France — Veteran Japanese figure skater Akiko Suzuki has high hopes for the future after making her international breakthrough on the world stage at the age of 27 years with a bronze.
Days after turning 27, Suzuki saved what would have been a disappointing world championship week on the French Riveria for the Japanese women, who had won four of the five titles prior to Nice.
Two-time world champion Mao Asada slumped to sixth and 17-year-old Kanako Murakami dropped from second after the short programme to fifth overall.
But up stepped Suzuki skating to "Die Fledermaus" to surge unexpectly from fifth onto the podium behind winner Carolina Kostner of Italy and Russia's Alena Leonova.
"I want to put this medal on my coach's neck," said Suzuki, whose early career had been blighted with her struggle with anorexia.
Suzuki had been one of the rising stars of Japanese women's figure skating before her battle with the eating disorder almost ended her promising career at the age of just 16. She missed the entire 2003-2004 season.
The skater from Aichi, who trains in Nagoya, finished just 11th in her only previous world appearance in 2010, after making her Olympic debut earlier that year with an eighth place in Vancouver.
She now hopes to focus on next season and her bid to compete in the 2014 Sochi Games.
"I think missing last year's world team gave a lot of motivation to train harder. This is my first world medal and I am 27 years old.
"So after one year I have my first medal. This is the first present I got after turning 27," said Suzuki.
She added: "I am very, very happy to have won a medal. But I wanted to give a clean performance and get a medal with it. So I have a few regrets about that.
"In my free skating the last triple Lutz is something I always work on. I really wanted to nail it, but couldn't. I still need to work on it."
The medal capped a successful season for Suzuki who beat Olympic silver medallist Asada to win the NHK Trophy and finished runner-up to the 2008 and 2010 world champion at nationals and second to Kostner at the Grand Prix final.
Her bronze brought Japan's final tally to four medals with Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu winning silver and bronze in the men's event and Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran Japan's first pairs medal with bronze.
 

christinaskater

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/T120402004267.htm
Suzuki comes of age with world bronze
Hiroshi Wakamizu / Yomiuri Shimbun Sportswriter

NICE, France--Akiko Suzuki gave herself the perfect birthday present--her first-ever medal at a world figure skating championships.

Having turned 27 three days earlier, she knows she doesn't have many chances left.

"I believed that you can make progress from any age, and that's what led to this medal," Suzuki said after becoming the oldest world medalist in Japan figure skating history. "And I still believe I can get even better."

Suzuki, who was fifth after the short program, leapfrogged young compatriots Mao Asada and Kanako Murakami to finish third behind Italy's Carolina Kostner and Russian Alena Leonova.

Suzuki, despite a minor muff on a jump in the second half, made up for it with speed and emotion to score the second-highest in the free skate behind Kostner.

While Suzuki would not comment on her prospects for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, it would seem the perfect place to close a career that has had more than its share of ups and downs.

Suzuki struggled with an eating disorder early in her career, missing the entire 2003-04 season. It took several years to get back to a competitive level, but she did made Japan's team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where she placed eighth.

The 2010-11 season saw Suzuki struggle again, leading her to take a close look at her program and make sweeping changes on the advice of her coach. Through hard practice, she added a triple-triple to her routine.

This season, the Aichi Prefecture native showed the fruits of her labor by winning the NHK Trophy and finishing second at Skate Canada, the Grand Prix Final and the Japan championships.
 

mikeko666

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
-The difficulty I have in wrapping my head around the "reputation" explanation is that 1) I'm not quite sure why Alena would have built a hugely stronger reputation than Akiko, and 2) how is it then that new skaters can break in and develop reputations in the first place? And some very quickly (e.g. Yuna and Mao)?

The federation support you mentioned above would explain it well. Leonova has more support from her federation (at least for now) than Suzuki does. Suzuki was never a favorite of JSF, and is merely a spare for when Asada, Ando or Murakami is absent or unreliable, just like Yukari Nakano was. That is why Murakami won Bronze while she missed the podium with suspiciously low scores at GPF last season.

This blog entry summarizes well.
http://morozombie.blogspot.jp/2010/12/tribute-to-number-threes-akiko-suzuki.html

This year's ladies singles result was the second last thing JSF wanted, only next to the podium with no Japanese lady. In the beginning of this season, Asada, Murakami and Ando (even thought she was not be competing) were chosen as Tokubetsu Kyokasensyu (Special Trainees, the highest rank of the trainees funded by JSF) while Suzuki was chosen as a Kyokasenshu A (the second highest rank) despite of her high ISU rank. Later she was promoted to a Special Trainee after she was assigned to two GPS events because JSF had no choice but to do so if they wanted to promote Imai.
 
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christinaskater

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Good luck to Akiko during the WTT! Hope she does a clean program and who knows become one of the World team trophy champions for Japan!
 

christinaskater

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
I love this post on youtube
Suzuki is truly special... When I see this kind of skating, it makes me wonder about the current scoring system, which doesn't give her much credit, particularly for PCS. The joy, freedom, committment, and speed with which she skates, in my opinion, far exceed most of the other skaters who consistently receive 8.0+ for their PCS...
 

christinaskater

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Had she nailed that lutz in the SP and the 2nd lutz in the LP, she would've won Worlds 2012! :)

Better luck next year. Looks like she's aimed to go to Sochi. Her star will continue to grow brighter and bigger next year especially with the World bronze medal added to her credentials.

If Maria was able to do it at 29 then anything is possible!
 

Robeye

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
I love this post on youtube
Suzuki is truly special... When I see this kind of skating, it makes me wonder about the current scoring system, which doesn't give her much credit, particularly for PCS. The joy, freedom, committment, and speed with which she skates, in my opinion, far exceed most of the other skaters who consistently receive 8.0+ for their PCS...
Couldn't agree more. She's been growing on me for quite a while, and is now one of my very favorite skaters. In the past, she didn't quite have the technical content/consistency to contend for the top (something I lamented last year, because I thought she had everything else to go far), and it's pretty amazing that she's managed to make that happen at this stage of her career.

But the way that her PCS was marked in this LP (specifically the latter three components) was bordering on aggravated assault and battery of sense and sensibility (and throw away the key, dangit) :sarcasm:. I personally thought that she was sufficiently superior in these aspects to get her a silver-winning score. But even if that can be debated, there is no reason in the world, or Worlds (that has yet been made clear to me; I'm still searching ;)) that these marks should not have at least recognized a differentiation between this performance and Alena's LP. If absolute precision in this area is perhaps theoretically and inherently unreachable, my own view is that accuracy (who was better than who, even if we bicker about the fractions of difference) should be a practical, reasonable, and intellectually satisfying expectation.

I've always accepted (though reluctantly) the explanation that it takes a certain amount of time to acquire "reputation", particularly for the artistic aspects. The quicker-than-the-eye-can-see nature of skating will, understandably, make judges cautious about changing their views and the scoring history on the spot. I thought that this "slow to turn" characteristic was perhaps a necessary and acceptable evil. What I don't understand in this case is that Akiko was winning and medalling the entire season; at the rate the judges are turning (and I hope they are), they could have manned the helm of the Titanic.

If we see more appropriate scoring for similar quality performances next year, then I'll be less disgruntled. The speed of change in Akiko's case would still have been too slow (and baselessly slow) to suit me, but it would demonstrate that aesthetic laws still apply, talent will eventually find its level, even if one drop at a time.

If not, then my floundering around for explanations might become something like a Nietzchean act of staring into the abyss :unsure:. :p

In any case, congratulations to Akiko for skating a season she can be proud of, and best wishes for next year. Hope you wow us again, Akiko! :)
 

spikydurian

Medalist
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Akiko has a beautiful and contagious smile, and a joy in her own right to watch. Amazing that she's still skating at this age. That's love for figure skating. :)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
That was a lovely free skate. For her to win a bronze was a fabulous outcome. After all our anguish here in the States, it's great to watch. I hope she flourishes all the way to Sochi!
 
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