Shoma Uno, 27, reveals the ‘best performance of his athletic career’... Deepest feelings for his former coach Lambiel: ‘He's a funny guy’
Uno's days of sinking to the depths of despair and realising her own ‘limits’... But a fateful encounter leads Shoma Uno to become a world champion. A special article from the documentary programme NumberTV produced by Sports Graphic Number x Lemino.
Six months have passed since his retirement press conference. When asked about his ‘best performance of my athletic career’, Shoma Uno replied without hesitation: "I have two choices. Bolero, which I won at the World Championships (in 2022), or the free skate at the NHK Trophy (in 2023)."
The reason why he easily chose these two performances was because of his deep love for his mentor Stéphane Lambiel. Shoma Uno, who has always said that even the Olympics are ‘just a passing competition’ and that there are no special competitions.
First of all, he looks back on his season of Bolero as follows.
"At the World Championships the year before, I was fourth. I had been enjoying skating since I met Stéphane, so I wasn't unhappy with the situation where I wasn't competing at the top that much. But he asked me, ‘What do you think you need to do to be at the top of the world?’ ....... I realised that he believed I could make it to the top, and I thought, ‘I'm going to give it another go so I can do well for Stéphane’."
In the 2021-2022 season, his passion changed. Instead of aiming for a perfect performance, he put in five quads in the free programme and pushed himself to the limit.
"I changed my mindset to “I don't care how low my results go, I'll spend my days finally becoming the best in the world”, and kept practising a programme packed with as many skills as I could. This was the most intense time of my skating career."
The moment she finished her performance of ‘Bolero’, he looked back at his coach.
"I once said to Koshiro Shimada, who I train with, “I want to give a performance that Stéphane will be happy with for the rest of my skating life”. That's what we think about every day. That's why I looked at Stéphane so quickly after my performance."
Seeing his coach expressing his emotions...
Another best performance was in the NHK Trophy FS in 2023. It looked like a perfect performance, but all four quads were judged to be under-rotated, and he finished second in the competition.
"Stéphane and I had practised and competed with conviction from the Cup of China to the NHK Cup,’ he said. But only the results didn't come. If I don't dare to give my ‘best performance’, I don't think I will ever be rewarded."
What he wants to be rewarded for is his coach, who was by his side, rather than himself.
"Stéphane is a mischievous person. He is more nervous than any of the competitors before the competition. And he gets angrier than any of the players when they don't get as much credit as they expected in a match, to the extent that on the bus home he shouts at the technical committee member who gave the scores, ‘What was that all about’ (laughs). He is a coach who puts a lot of emotion into his coaching."
It was the same at the NHK Trophy. Seeing the coach expressing his emotions was the most memorable moment of his last season.
number.bunshun.jp
he's a ISFP-A!
I even had Fuji TV Bolero on my playlist BEFORE Shoma skated to it, because I enjoyed the suspense of that song a lot, lol.
), and found this fan fest and slowly read the whole thing 
Reading through the entire thread is an impressive feat! (I haven't read all of it yet...
