Shoma Uno (JPN) 2023 ISU World Champion
I’m just honestly happy about all of this. Both the short and the free skate I did better than what I expected
and especially for the free skate I know there were little mistakes here and there but I was able to put on
the best performance I could do at this moment so I’m really happy. (strength to deliver) Looking back at
my career, I’ve had several similar experiences and there’s always people around and close to me to
support me through the hard times. I had this with injuries, bad condition, in the past it was my family that
was there for me but now there’s Marin, Stephane and coach Demi, all the managers and everyone
involved, I’m really grateful for the support and presence to my team. (the balance) Of course, if I’m the one
watching the performance, I would be attracted to energetic, focused performance that resonates with
people’s hearts. So I understand that’s what the audience would want but I’ve been skating for a long time
and going into competition I really have to control my emotions and sometimes competitions are a source
of stress and sometimes I cannot perform like I trained. I might over think and try to do more than what I
have trained and I might be afraid of these things. I went looked over the Grand Prix Final performance, it
was really good, but I realized it didn't resonate with people’s hearts. That wasn't what I wanted, and I didn’t
know what the right answer was. Do I go for the delivery and the result or be more emotional? BUt I know if
I only focus on the result aspect the past two years was not a mistake, I did the right thing to deliver the
result but as a skater I have to look ahead and see what kind of skater I want to be and that’s what I want to
start thinking about now. (friends off the ice) These two, though I cannot speak much English, whenever we
see each other we greet each other with a smile and there’s no need for language, it’s not like we talked
about a specific topic but I know and I can sense the good character and nature in both of them. I have
enjoyed skating with them on several occasions such as ice shows, and even during this competition,
before the short program, Ilia skated in an earlier group and when I was putting on my boots he came over
and he was concerned about my injury and gave me support. This is a competition and we are competitors
so we are here to compete but figure skating is actually competing with yourself and not others. So these
are great buddies to compete with.
And I have the feeling that there might be more to come...
it's such a fun remark by now, even between them
they are family.
