Yuma Kagiyama

[gsk8]

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Wow, I just watched Yuma's performances at 4CC and I still have goosebumps. What an amazing skater he is! The speed, the crisp jumps, the passion, absolutely loved it! The FS K&C was very cute too, with the two Snoopys and Yuma's joy at scoring so well.
All the best for Worlds to Yuma!

 

[adelia]

Goosebumps is certainly the right word. Phenomenal freeskate. Never lost speed or passion from start to finish. Absolutely love this guy.

 

[noskates]

Yuma's gala program to opera, of all things, was wonderful. I think with this competition he's put the rest of the world on notice!!!!

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Congratulations to Yuma on winning his first-ever ISU Championship Event! He earned three SB scores and his second highest ever combined score of 307.58. He expressed in interviews that he was very pleased with his scores and to win the event, but thinks he can score even higher if he lands his jumps and executes his spins at the level he does in practice. This was his second competition attempting the 4F. He fully rotated the jump, but had a stepout on it. Nevertheless, he has been landing several in practice and believes the consistency to be approaching that of his 4S and 4T (which is very stable). He plans to get new programs next season, and will travel to Canada prior to the World Championships to brush up on his choreography with Lori Nichol. At Worlds, he thinks that a fully clean program executed to the best of his ability is the way to beat Ilia, Adam, and Shoma, and believes that he does have a shot at the gold medal if he is clean.
Some other fun information:
Kao congratulated him on the win and sent him a "drink ticket", although Yuma says he doesn't plan on drinking until his skating career is done .
He wants to be on a podium with Kao and Shun some day.
His favourite volleyball player on the Ryujin Nippon national team is Nishida Yuji. They met each other during the Volleyball Challenge Cup when Yuma went to see a game. Yuma admires his energy and ability to keep his confidence up even when he is injured or having a bad day.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun

 

[Marirue]

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Yuma held an open practice sessions at Chukyo University on the 26 February. He is landing the 4F more in practice and is focusing on that jump, completing at least two today even though he fell on it during his runthrough. He says that he is in very good condition right now and is practicing to win at Worlds. He will hold a training camp in Karuizawa from the 27th. He will be heading to Canada on the 3rd of March in order to brush up on his free skate choreography with Lori Nichol (and adapt to the time zone change).



Source

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

When catching up with Junior Worlds, Yuma's 4CC FS again popped up on my youtube playlist. I have to say, of all the men competing now, in my opinion he is the most complete skater in terms of technical difficulty and skating skills. With a clean 4F and performances like at 4CC I don't believe anyone should rightfully beat him at Worlds.

So I keep my fingers crossed that his preparation is going well and look forward to another exciting competition soon. Go Yuma!

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

An interesting new interview with Yuma and Papa-Coach Masakazu about 4CC looking ahead towards Worlds was just released. Yuma says he was happiest about receiving the highest PCS scores and step sequence GOE at 4CC, because that is what he has been working on all season and wanted to show in this performance. Papa-Coach says that this has been a season of "super-evolution", and a lot of it is thanks to Coach Caro's influence. Because of her, Yuma has been able to improve his performance, skating skills, step sequences, choreo, and spins and developed a new appreciation for these elements. The team wasn't expecting Yuma to be in a position to be fighting for a Worlds title at the start of the season, but then he kept on medalling and medalling and getting better. They thought that this would be a soft-launch season and they would be working towards the next, but here Yuma is with the second-highest score of the men this season firmly fighting to be the best in the world. Papa-Coach just wants Yuma to do his best at Worlds and finish with no regrets, because he has surpassed everyone's expectations so far this season, but his son is fighting to win. Yuma thinks Worlds will be a very fun competition because it is so high-level, and will try to make up his BV deficit by accumulating points. He will improve the GOEs on his jumps, but he also wants to be first-ranked in all other scores and win thanks to the GOE of all of his elements, not just the jumps. He finishes by saying that while his goal is a perfect score and the title, his biggest focus is to "remember to challenge myself, to give 120%, and to continue to perform well".

When you look at Yuma's season trajectory, he started out the season with a 211.47 at Kinoshita Trophy with two disaster programs. He received just level 2 step sequences in both programs, lost an entire spin in the FS, and received just 77 points in PCS in the FS. After that, his performances at Lombardia and GP France were both good, but not quite at World podium quality. In between GP France and NHK, though, Yuma upgraded his SP layout and had a massive jump in quality. The "super-evolution" continued to 4CC, where he improved on his SB by 19 points and received his second-highest combined score ever behind only the Beijing Olympics. Everything has just improved so much, from his speed and flow to the jump quality to his overall confidence in the programs. No matter what happens at Worlds, this is truly a remarkable comeback from a devastating injury, and testament to Yuma's hard work and his team's strategy and positive influence. I can't wait to see his FP at Worlds, as he will have brushed up the choreo with Lori Nichol and I think that may take it from a magical program to a World champion level program.

Source: FNN Figure Skating Coverage Team

 

[reader3]

A superb job from Kagiyama!

 

[demarinis5]

Great skate from Yuma!

 

[gsk8]

 

[gsk8]

 

[reader3]

Congrats on the Silver to Yuma!

 

[gsk8]

 

[gsk8]

 

[gsk8]

 

[yuumagical]

Although I felt utterly distraught after seeing Shoma off the podium, I still decided to see the 2024 Worlds victory ceremony because of Yuma. He was truly magical all week. Practices didn't always go well from what I saw of them (one time he hit the boards like he did during the Youth Olympics...), but most of the time, he was buttery smooth with beautiful flowing movements and well-executed jumps. It has amazed me just how much he has improved his performance quality with Carolina's guidance. He had the same beautiful skating skills back when I last saw him in 2022, but not the charisma and not the modes of selling a performance that he is clearly picking up on. Even though I am not certain as to how involved I will be in the skating world moving forward, there's a part of me that can't help but eagerly anticipate how Yuma will develop heading into the next Olympics. He looked incredibly happy as he passed by during the victory lap, as he clearly deserves to be after all he has been through.

 

[demarinis5]

Congrats to Yuma!!!

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Carolina Kostner on what she hopes for Yuma in the future:

"If I have to name specific goals, I wish for him not to see limits and to be able to grow year by year, to have the patience to go through the stages of his personal career, physical evolution, and everything else, to be able to nourish the skater, the human being, the skating fan, the art lover, the photography lover, and to be able to use all this inspiration and put it into his own skating, to create his own style."

She will talk with Yuma & the rest of his team after Worlds to see if they will continue to work together; this was Carolina's first time really being in a coaching role