Original article
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I lost here, so I need to win the next time. After all, the competition takes place in my hometown (NHK Trophy to be held in November in Sendai). Whoever my rivals may be, even if it’s Takahashi, even if he is my teammate, I want to win!
This is from an interview right after the first Grand Prix series event, Skate America. During the short 3 minutes 46 seconds, the Sendai-born Yuzuru Hanyu repeated, “I want to win” 4 times.
We all know his frustration and disappointment. He skated almost perfectly at all 3 run through. He even landed the quad toe-loop and quad salchow. He set a new world record with his short program score of 95.07, with Takahiko Kozuka 10 points behind in 2nd place. Before the free, everyone thought Yuzuru would win and even if he made a mistake, it would be one fall with the quad. No one expected him to lose, and it was an easy win.
On the other hand, he fell on the quad toe-loop, quad salchow, doubled the lutz and landed with both feet, and his choreographed step sequence was not counted. He was 3rd in the free, and 2nd overall, and everyone was surprised at what happened.
“I’m only at this level now. This is who I am now. After I fell on my consistent quad toe, I lost my concentration, all the way to the end. I’m just very ashamed of myself.”
But, despite the large mistakes, the Japanese figure skating team and the press are not very worried. Looking at Yuzuru Hanyu's open practices, with the short program, his jumps, skating skills, and interpretation improved greatly. It is not that Hanyu is weak at competitions or gets stage fright. He is known to fix his mistakes in short periods of time, reach all of his goals by the end of the season, and everyone knows those strengths.
Page 1:
I lost here, so I need to win the next time. After all, the competition takes place in my hometown (NHK Trophy to be held in November in Sendai). Whoever my rivals may be, even if it’s Takahashi, even if he is my teammate, I want to win!
This is from an interview right after the first Grand Prix series event, Skate America. During the short 3 minutes 46 seconds, the Sendai-born Yuzuru Hanyu repeated, “I want to win” 4 times.
We all know his frustration and disappointment. He skated almost perfectly at all 3 run through. He even landed the quad toe-loop and quad salchow. He set a new world record with his short program score of 95.07, with Takahiko Kozuka 10 points behind in 2nd place. Before the free, everyone thought Yuzuru would win and even if he made a mistake, it would be one fall with the quad. No one expected him to lose, and it was an easy win.
On the other hand, he fell on the quad toe-loop, quad salchow, doubled the lutz and landed with both feet, and his choreographed step sequence was not counted. He was 3rd in the free, and 2nd overall, and everyone was surprised at what happened.
“I’m only at this level now. This is who I am now. After I fell on my consistent quad toe, I lost my concentration, all the way to the end. I’m just very ashamed of myself.”
But, despite the large mistakes, the Japanese figure skating team and the press are not very worried. Looking at Yuzuru Hanyu's open practices, with the short program, his jumps, skating skills, and interpretation improved greatly. It is not that Hanyu is weak at competitions or gets stage fright. He is known to fix his mistakes in short periods of time, reach all of his goals by the end of the season, and everyone knows those strengths.