Sorry to be late. It's not "soon"!
My day got terribly busy and this article was difficult to translate. ( Further my PC froze! i hate windows 10. )
Someone correct me.
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http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/winter...medium=twitter
Now his first season as a senior was over, what he is aiming for now is a performance beyond records or scores.
This 18 years old shy boy changes drastically once he gets on the ice.
“There was a huge difference between me and senior skates. Especially, it felt my expressions didn’t go anywhere, so I wanted to practice off season focusing on things other than jumps also.”
He began figure skating when he was five.
“Mao-chan played with me. When the class was over, the letter to urge me to select among figure skating, ice hockey and speed skating. I said “I would like to do the same as that Mao-chan does and chose figure skating.
Dance, swimming, tennis…, further, he got a grab for golf at the age of two and a half. He had already experienced various kinds of sports when he was little, but figure skating felt different from other sports.
“I enjoy just the sense of skating.”
The sense on the ice was different from that on the ground. The unusual sense captured him a lot. One day he fell on the ice and hit his head, still he asked his father to take him there again. The artistry is one of his attractions. However he says “I really disliked dance and ballet. I felt embarrassed so much.”
“These days I got able to dance on the ground a little, but one year ago it felt impossible for me to dance there. I don’t feel embarrassed when I am on the ice, but I feel so on the ground. I am not good at being watched from others.”
He has never given up figure skating. “I haven’t the slightest idea that I will quite it.”
It was since he was a child. When his father asked him “Have you ever wanted to quit it?” , he replied “what would I do after that?”.
The people around him have set the target of Olympics gold medal since he was a child, so he took it for granted. Yet he now has some different thought from it.
“Of course I would love to get a result at Olympics, but I have the bigger thought that it’s not a goal. I feel delighted at getting a good result at a competition, and I think it’s what to do, but at the same time, I truly don’t want to become a skater who takes a title at Olympics but can’t keep being remembered by people. I want to become a skater who can change people’s minds by his performance.”
The Phantom of the Opera by Daisuke Takahashi at Nationals 2006 moved his soul so much.
“I just thought he was awesome and he became my idle, and I wanted to get a skater like him.”
The pre-Olympic season starts this autumn. The expectation by others about his podium at Olympics is getting higher, but he stays calm towards it.
“There are only two years (before Olympics), but it doesn’t feel real since I watched it on TV until while ago, although I think how it would be to get on the stage at Olympics.”
He watched Sochi Olympics, Yuzuru Hanyu’s gold medal on TV.
“I thought he’d been a skater whom I’d competed with about two years before and how much he’d been developed for those two years. I have a good example close to me, so I want to catch him some day and compete at the same level.”
He’s a normal university student once he gets off the rink. His relaxation is doing games. His favorite is a card game “Hearthstone”. But his hate to lose spirit is found also there.
“I’m aiming for the upper in the game field also (lol). I do it every day to get stronger aiming for the upper. In my mind are only skating and games.”
He doesn’t have anything he wants. It’s the same thought as that with skating. He want to cherish its process.
“I don’t feel good if I can take something easily. Getting something easily doesn’t touch me at all even if it is a good result. The time when I feel happiest is that I get it after just keeping working. I practice every day for the moment.”
How is his image about next season?
“I want to make it the year when I will develop (like the last season). It’s not the year when I will get results, but that when I can feel firmly my development. I have a lot of things that feel rough or I can do well with. That means the standard that I aim for is the upper level. There is much room to improve.”
He admits that he walks by his own pace. He isn’t good at setting a goal far ahead of the present time. He’s come here keeping “step by step”. He lives his life hard cherishing this moment.
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I find this interview is so nice. Now he’s one of the skaters who attract people’s interests and they talk many things about him as they like. But he himself is down to earth and stays on his feet and just keeps doing what he should do.
topic:
Catching every piece of live music is very difficult, and sometimes, a musician overwhelms a skater. Of course, shoma wouldn't fall in such a situation!.
Does this cheer you up?
He knows what he has to do to improve, so I guess those fans who care about him just have to trust that he's doing those things. I just kept thinking, "Wow - is his skating really that bad?!" Normally I would have watched his Grand Prix Finals FS to cheer myself up but was in a remote area where I couldn't watch any videos. Thank you for the pat on the back - you are so sweet!
