FUYU NO OHIMESAMA~冬のお姫様

だいたい決まっている運命～My fate is mostly decided

2011-01-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I don't usually post translations on this blog, but since others have already translated this article, and the link has already been shared on the Mao Asada Fan Forum, I thought I would post my own translation here. ^_^

Why bother translating if someone already has? Well, I figure that everyone translates things differently, and I enjoy translating the articles by Naoko Utsunomiya because she is the one who has been writing the yearly books about Mao, and seems to understand her well. And most of all, she truly seems to love Mao.

So here it is! Enjoy!

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My fate is mostly decided
Naoko Utsunomiya
Sports Graphic Number 769

Mao Asada tells the truth about her silver medal in Vancouver and her gold at the World Championships. The Olympics where her silver medal shone, and she lost her rival.
The World Championships where she stood on the center of the podium one month later.
On her dream stage, she carried the big expectations of Japan. She spoke about how she felt on the ice, and her thoughts about her medals.

“The Olympics have been my dream since I was small. That’s why, after it was decided that I would compete there, I felt like I had to try harder than I usually do.

At the very least, I didn’t want to think ‘I should have practiced this more,’ so I practiced until I was satisfied that I wouldn’t feel that way.

Before I left for Canada, I become quite nervous. But when I arrived, I was fine. In Vancouver, the whole city was caught up in the Olympics, and I thought, ‘it really is different from a normal competition.’

It seemed that everyone was enjoying the Olympics, so I was also excited. From that point on, I tried to enjoy my time there.”

In truth, Asada did enjoy that grandest stage. She was joyful. However, before she reached that point, her days were filled with all kinds of complications.

There was once a time when she was called both a “fairy” and an “angel.” However, in reality she was very much human-like. There were times when she suffered, and when she worried.

Beyond her skating ability, another thing that I find extraordinary about her is her “ability to forget.” She forgets things that happen right away. To the point that it’s hard to believe. That’s why she is strong.

What I am recording from here are Mao Asada’s words. She spoke for a long time. Without faltering, without hesitating, without embellishing, she looked at herself with a strict eye.

“During the Olympic season, I wasn’t able to practice with Tatiana (Tarasova)-sensei very much. If I add it all up, it was probably 4 sessions of 10 days each.

She created a level 4 step sequence for me, and brought out a new side of me, so I’m grateful.
However, because we met so infrequently, so we couldn’t properly build a relationship of trust.
To stay in Russia full time was impossible for me. I love Japan, and I didn’t have that kind of courage.

In Japan, Zhanna-sensei (Tarasova’s assistant) looked after me. While we practiced, Mama would always interrupt, so we even got into arguments. ‘I’ll do it with Zhanna, so don’t interrupt’ I said. (Laughs)

I knew from the start of the season that my jumps were messed up. For a long time, I had been thinking that I wanted to fix them properly, but I knew that even if I tried to fix them before the Olympics, I absolutely wouldn’t make it in time.
So, for the Olympics, I decided to go with the best jump layout I could do. In other words, three triple axels.

I am often asked, didn’t you think of a back-up plan? But doesn’t thinking of a back-up plan in itself mean that you think, ‘I’ll fail at the axel; I won’t be able to do it”?
I thought, that’s something that I can’t really do.
At the Olympics, I will absolutely do three triple axels! That’s what I thought.”

A jump layout that depends on triple axels is probably somewhat reckless. However, for Asada as she was then, it was the very best layout. You could even say it was only way she could compete.

Furthermore, the challenge of the triple axels helped her maintain her motivation. After the 2009 Rostelecom Cup (Grand Prix Cup of Russia), she was exhausted, and she was starting to lose her desire to go to the Olympics.

“After [the competition in] Russia, if I had stayed in that state while training for Vancouver, I don’t think I would have been able to control my feelings or my body.

What changed my mindset was going to Korea for the Four Continents Championship. I ate yakiniku and ddobboki [spicy rice cakes] and became cheerful, so it was a good diversion for me.

I entered Canada on February 20.

This happens before every big competition, but for a few days before I set off, I am unable to eat anything. I become rock-bottom depressed. If this doesn’t happen, then things don’t go well—contrary to what you would think.

The same thing happened before I went to Vancouver, but I practiced to the point that I could say ‘I can’t do any more than this,’ so I didn’t feel nervous.

I started practicing in Vancouver on the day I arrived in Canada. Competing in the Olympics was my dream from when I was 10 years old, so because of that, you would think I’d have some kind of special thoughts, but when I stood on the rink, all I thought was, “Oh, it’s the Olympics!” It was super fun.

And then, I was happy that the food at the athletes’ village was delicious. My favorite was yogurt with maple syrup on top.

In addition, there were all kinds of foods like sushi and Italian and Chinese, and no matter how much you ate, it was all free. (Laughs)

Before the short program, Tarasova came, so I was glad. For me, it was my first Olympic appearance, but Sensei had experienced it many times before, so I could be strong.”

“My goal at the Olympics was to win and do my short and free programs perfectly. Especially the short program. I thought that winning would depend on the short program.

In reality, I did very well in the short program. Even I thought that I would get my season best score (73.78). The triple axel combination jump was good, and other than the steps, I got all level 4s, so I was very satisfied.

However, I was in second place, and between me and Yu-Na in first place, there was a pretty large point gap (4.72), and so I thought that even if I were to be at 100%, if she didn’t make any mistakes it would be hard for me to come from behind and win.

Yu-Na and I have been seen as rivals since we were young, but we’re the same age, and I think we were able to reach this point because we’ve motivated each other.

While practicing, there were times when I was conscious of thinking “Yu-Na must be trying hard.” With this in mind, I have been able to think, “I’ll work even harder.”

At the Olympics, I thought, “Ah, this is my biggest competition against Yu-Na.” That was it.

Other than that, I focused on myself. ‘Just bring out everything you can do—if you can do that, there will be no regrets.’ That’s what I thought.

On the day of the ladies’ free program, there were no empty seats. Even in the far-away reaches of the arena, there were Japanese flags in every direction, and many were being waved.

The competition went on without delay. And Kim did not make any mistakes. Her total score was 228.56. This score was one that you see in the men’s competition, which has different elements, and it was the highest ladies’ score in history.

“After the short program, of course I thought that it would be better to have a gold medal rather than a silver. (Laughs) But I did not feel pressure to medal. My desire to land the triple axels was stronger.”

Once the competition started, I was not conscious of Yu-Na at all. However, I was scheduled to skate right after Yu-Na, so I could hear the terrific cheering, and I thought, “Ah, it must have been an amazing performance.’

Other than that, I was completely in my own world. While warming up, I checked the feel of the ice. The ice was not bad. I had a good feel for it. If I think about it now, I was calm, I think.

In my free program as well, the beginning was good. I landed the triple axels, and I thought, “If I can keep going like this, I can give my best performance of the season.” No mistakes, perfect, 100%.

However, that was only the 2 minutes of the first half. Before the flip, my body became stiff. Once I thought about the score, my body changed. It wasn’t natural. And then, I underrotated the jump.

As for the toe loop which I singled—that was because I got stuck in a divot (a hole in the ice rink). It’s a jump I can do anytime, but at that time, my foot got pretty stuck, so it was impossible.

It was extremely vexing. Even if I recall it now, it’s upsetting.

Right after I finished skating, I didn’t care about anything, not even my placement. All I could think was that I didn’t give a good performance and was upset.

Before my score (205.50) came out , I already knew, ‘it’s over (I can’t win).’ Once I messed up my jumps, I thought that.

In the end, I was second. Even so, it’s really vexing. If I had done my performance properly and ended up second, I probably would have been satisfied, but I wasn’t able to do that.

In the kiss and cry, I didn’t cry, but in the interview after that, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t clear my head at all.

That’s why, even though I was asked, ‘How do you feel now?’, I wasn’t able to answer anything. All that came out was ‘Aah.’ In my heart, I felt, ‘The Olympics just finished.’

When was it that I recovered, I wonder…During the medals ceremony, in the beginning it was painful, but when I received my medal, and when the ‘Hi no maru’ [Japanese flag] was raised, my joy was pretty amazing.

The Olympics really were special. I was really moved. That, and, at the medals ceremony, I strongly felt like I was a representative of Japan.

After all, the Olympics are a competition between nations, aren’t they? The result was a silver medal, but I thought, I’m glad I was able to win a medal. When I went around the rink holding the Japanese flag, I was really happy.

Leaving behind a pleasant, exulted feeling, Mao Asada’s first Olympics ended.
And then, after the Olympics, the season moved to Torino, Italy.

“After I returned from Canada, I rested for about two days, and then I returned to my previous routine. I did think, ‘I wish I could rest more,’ but Torino [Worlds] was approaching, so I tried not to lose focus.

But truthfully, it was really difficult. I probably felt a little bit of burnout. But then, I changed my mindset. ‘I’ll do what I can do!’

For the Olympics, I practiced a lot, so if I gave as much effort as I usually do, I figured that I’d be fine at Worlds too. Before I went to Torino, I didn’t get depressed. It was like I had become free, unshackled.”

At the World Championships, the Vancouver gold medalist, Yu-Na Kim, among other talented skaters were gathered, and a gorgeous stage was prepared.

“My goal was to skate perfectly—only that. In the short program, my triple axel was downgraded, but I thought I did a good job.

After the short program, there was a lot of time until the free program, so I ate gelato. The milk flavor was delicious.

Before Vancouver, I tried my best very stoically. That’s why Torino was so fun. My mood was completely forward-looking, and I completely believed in myself.

In the free program, I was determined to do the flip and toe loop that I messed up at the Olympics, no matter what.

And, the results [I wanted] came. Both axels were counted as underrotated, but other than that, I thought my performance was really good.

In terms of the short program, my Olympic performance was the best. But, for the free program, my performance at Torino was the best. Just because of that, I was happy, and then because I won, I was really happy. My mood became more and more fun.

My total score (Torino—197.58) was lower than at the Olympics, but I felt strongly that I brought out the results I wanted.

The competitions always have different judges, and depending on the competition, the scoring is completely different. So I don’t really pay attention to the scores, or let them bother me.

For me, the most important thing is doing all the elements I’m supposed to do properly, then #2 is the placement I get, and #3 is the score.

If I had been able to give the free program performance I gave in Torino at the Vancouver Olympics, then I don’t think it would have been so vexing, and I don’t think I would have cried. That was how satisfied I felt at the World Championships.

However, I was able to do that because I made mistakes at the Olympics. In the end, I guess you have to let things happen as they happen.

Fate—it’s mostly decided, isn’t it? If you work hard, then the future is already decided. That’s how I feel.

When I received my medal on the podium, I thought, ‘A gold medal really is great.’ I don’t compare it to my medal from Vancouver, but I definitely thought that gold is good.

My gold medal from Torino is proof that I challenged myself with the most difficult elements and performed my programs properly. That makes me the most happy, and I’m glad I was able to do that.”

However, the most precious medal to Mao Asada is her Vancouver silver medal. While she was speaking, she said over and over again that ‘the Olympics are special.’ With a joyful smile, she said this. That was her 2009-2010 season.

December 2010. Asada was practicing in Yokohama.

This season, her condition has been terrible. Especially her jumps. She keeps making mistakes. However, the people around her are not as depressed as you would think. They seem cheerful.

“I guess it has been the most painful time for me. But, I’ve been wanting to change my jumps for a long time, and if I’m going to change them, I have to do it this season. That’s why, I’m okay with it.

There is one week until the All-Japan National Championships. Depending on how much I can do in the next week, I will be able to see the results. I think it’s a very important time for me.

Nationals will determine whether I maintain my winning streak and go to Worlds, but I’m only thinking about doing the things I have to do. I will do all six types of jumps. I don’t plan to leave any out.

I want to give a performance that will make the people who are worried for me think, ‘she did well,’ and I will try my best to meet their expectations.”

Asada is an unwieldy/clumsy competitor. She can’t go on without forever challenging herself.

And even now, she will keep challenging herself.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mao-chan!!

2010-10-02T22:32:00.000-04:00

Last week Saturday, September 25, was Mao's 20th birthday!!
She's officially an adult in Japan!

Here she is celebrating at Chuukyou University ice rink with her new coach, Nobuo Sato, her sister Mai, and Takahiko Kozuka (another of Sato-sensei's pupils and a fellow Chuukyo Univ. student)!

Champagne! Yummy! ^_^

As with many members of the Mao Asada Fan Forum, I wrote a short message for Mao to be included on a DVD for her.

You can watch the English version here:

And here is the Japanese version:

Here is the text of my messages to Mao:

Dear Mao,

Happy Birthday!

It has been almost 5 years since I first saw you skate at the 2005 Grand Prix Final on TV and became your fan.

I was impressed by the beauty of your skating, and the lightness of your jumps, but most of all, I was enchanted by the joy you brought to your skating and your smile. I know that you "don't like to lose," but to me, you have always been a skater who skates not for medals, but because you love it.

Please don't forget your love of skating. I think you are the best skater in the world, and I would be so happy if you won every competition, but most of all, I want to see your beautiful smile.

Surely there will be more challenges and hard times in the seasons to come, but in the end, I believe you will triumph. Because in the end, you always overcome.

I’m looking forward to seeing you smile at the World Championships in Japan next year.

Good luck!

-Your loyal fan

And the Japanese version (which I translated myself, so it might not be 100% accurate)...

真央ちゃんへ

お誕生日おめでとう！

真央ちゃんの2005 Grand Prix Finalの演技を見て、大ファンになってからもう五年間たちました。

その時、真央ちゃんの美しいスパイラルや軽やかなジャンプや滑らかなスケーティングが印象的でしたが、一番魅力的だったのは真央ちゃんの笑顔でした。あの演技に真央ちゃんの喜びと興奮が溢れていたそうです。真央ちゃんは「負けず嫌い」といっても、私の意見では、メダルのためじゃなくて、フィギュアスケートが大好きだから滑ります。

スケートの楽しさを絶対に忘れないでください。真央ちゃんはスケーターの中で、一番素晴らしくて、最高の選手だと思うので、全部の大会で金メダルをとってほしいですが、それよりも、真央ちゃんの眩しい笑顔を見たいです！

これから、きっと不調な時も辛い時も来ると思いますが、最後に真央ちゃんは絶対に成功すると信じます。真央ちゃんはいつも乗り越えますから。

来年の世界選手権で、真央ちゃんの最高の笑顔を楽しみにしています！

攻める気持ちで頑張ってください！

Here's to a happy, healthy year! GOO MAO!!

Ballerina on Ice

2010-06-30T17:44:00.000-04:00

As I’m sure many of you know, Mao Asada announced her music choices for the 2010-11 season a few weeks ago. I was thrilled to learn that Mao would finally be skating to Liszt’s “Liebestraum,” a song that seems to fit her perfectly, and I was very excited to see what she does with one of Alfred Schnittke’s tangos.

But what nearly caused me to fall out of my chair, was Mao’s choice for her exhibition: Chopin’s “Ballade No. 1 in G Minor.”

Because I have been obsessing over that song ever since I saw it used in the ballet “Lady of the Camellias” a month ago. John Neumeier, the choreographer, uses it for the final, passion-filled pas de deux, and with the phenomenal Diana Vishneva and Marcelo Gomes playing the leads, it was absolutely devastating.

(Click here to see part of the pas de deux, as danced by the legendary Alessandra Ferri and the “Italian stallion,” Roberto Bolle.)

This past weekend, we got to see Mao Asada perform her new exhibition for the first time, at the 2010 Dreams on Ice show. She revealed that the story for the exhibition is that of a ballerina practicing, and everything, from the simple white dress and her slicked-back hair, was chosen to give that image.

Ballerina on Ice

I have always thought of Mao as a ballerina on ice, and it has been a dream of mine to see her skate in a white costume. So to see her portray a ballerina all in white AND skate to my favorite Chopin piece of all time was like three dreams come true for me.

Mao Asada’s 2010-11 Exhibition
“Ballade No. 1 in G Minor” by Frederick Chopin

(Click on the YouTube icon to watch it in HD--it's worth it!)

After seeing Mao skate, though, I had to wonder, has Tatiana Tarasova, the choreographer, seen the ballet “Lady of the Camellias”?!! Could it be that she saw the Act III pas de deux and was just as moved as I was?!! Was that her inspiration?!

Here’s a picture of Lucia Lacarra in the final scene of the ballet:

(From the Teatro Alla Scala website)

The costume looks awfully similar to Mao’s, don’t you think? Hmmm...

Mao’s new exhibition is already a dream come true for me. But if it turns out that it was indeed inspired by the “Lady of the Camellias” ballet, it would be even more incredible, because it would be the perfect intersection of all the things I love.

Musings on artistry (Part 3)—Being “in the moment”

2010-05-02T15:21:00.000-04:00

When reflecting on artistry and expression, I recall a lesson I learned in ballet class about a month ago. My ballet teacher—who once worked with legendary choreographers, danced in the original Broadway production of “West Side Story,” and rubbed shoulders with movie stars—was emphasizing the importance of being “in the moment.”

She had us do a simple port de bras: with the arms rounded and held down in front of the hips (like a pair of parentheses), you raise them up, preserving the roundness, to mid-torso level, and then open the arms wide. While you do this, you are supposed to follow the movement of your hand with your eyes and head.

Now, in my less-than-humble opinion, I do lovely port de bras, with flowy wrists and soft fingers. However, my teacher took one look at me, and said, “No, no no. You’re not seeing your hand.” And it was true; I was inclining my eyes in the direction of my hands, but I was really half-admiring my reflection in the mirror.

“You have to see your hands!” she commanded. So I did it again, but this time I actually focused on my hands. I genuinely watched them move through space.

My teacher’s response: “There, that’s so much better!”

***

This experience was a sort of epiphany for me. Because “looking” without “seeing” is precisely what I see when I watch Yu-Na Kim perform.

In my opinion, Yu-Na Kim does all the choreographed movements perfectly; she gets all the facial expressions correct, but I feel like she is merely “doing” it without “feeling” it. It doesn’t seem genuine to me.

Akiko Suzuki, on the other hand, is also called an expressive skater, but everything she does seems genuine to me. That’s real fire in her tango, and real joy in her “West Side Story” routine.

And this, I realize, is why I can love both gentle Mao Asada and fiery Diana Vishneva—because both seem to be honest in their performances, no matter how wildly different they may be.

Personally, I’d rather see Mao Asada genuinely caught up in her own performance, completely forgetting about the audience, than the “Look! I'm emoting!!” style favored by Yu-Na Kim.

The same goes for ballerinas—I love Vishneva and all her over-the-top drama because I’m convinced that she’s absolutely crazy—about ballet. This is the artist who rehearsed the mere act of opening the door in “Giselle” five-hundred times (five hundred!) to make it perfect. This is the performer who crashed into a scenery piece while exiting the stage but returned to finish the ballet, bloody knee and all. This is the ballerina I can see dancing until she drops dead onstage. So while other people may find Vishneva too wild, too passionate, I love it—she’s 100% convincing to me.

In contrast, Natalia Osipova, the Bolshoi ballerina known for her gravity-defying leaps and speedy turns, left me cold when I saw her perform in “La Sylphide” last summer. Like the people sitting around me, I was amazed by her technique, but while they swooned, I cringed at every artificial expression that seemed to say, “here’s my cute face,” and “here’s my sad face,” and “Look-now I’m dying!”

Unsurprisingly, honesty in performance is another quality dancers admire about my other favorite ballerina, Julie Kent. ABT soloist Cory Stearns said, “I feel when Julie Kent dances, she finds something so deep inside of herself and brings it out.” Miami City Ballet principal Jennifer Carylnn Korneberg echoes, “I'd have to say that the ballerina I admire most from this generation though is Julie Kent. She has such an honesty, purity and selflessness about her dancing that takes my breath away.”

So it seems that the quality of “being in the moment” rather than “showing me the moment”—the ability to not only portray a certain emotion but also to find something inside oneself to make it true—THIS is what I value most in terms of performing.

Truth and beauty. That’s all I ask for.

Musings on artistry (Part 2)—“Beauty in motion”

2010-05-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

After considerable self-reflection, I have realized that there are three things I look for in terms of artistry: beauty, musicality, and expression.

“Beauty” stems from the skater or dancer’s technical prowess/physical ability—does she have beautiful lines and positions? Does she carry herself gracefully? Is she flexible; does she turn out? If I took a snapshot of this position, would it be beautiful? Is her execution flawless? Does she make the steps seem effortless?

I love both Mao and Vishneva because they are—to borrow the title of Vishneva’s solo show—“beauty in motion.” Vishneva herself said, “When you turn your technique into lightness, that’s what is worthwhile.”

And that is what I see when I see both Mao and Vishneva perform—an uncanny ability to appear lighter than air, like impossibly ethereal beings. They make even the most difficult, complex steps look effortless and beautiful.

These qualities appear to be the very ones that ballet dancers themselves admire. Two of the ABT corps de ballet members picked my other favorite, Julie Kent, as the dancer they most admire for these reasons. Melanie Hamrick said, “She is the essence of a ballerina and beauty; even if she’s doing something that is so hard, she looks weightless and effortless.” And Hee Seo echoed, “I think the most important thing—and it took me years to come to this conclusion—is that you have to be beautiful. Julie Kent is the most beautiful dancer in ABT. She’s not doing large, big pirouettes, but she is so beautiful.”

Julie Kent and Roberto Bolle in MacMillan’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Perhaps it is because of my ballet training, and perhaps because of my extreme attention to detail, but I value beauty in dancing and in skating very highly. And since I am very flexible despite sitting in an office all day long, I am extremely critical of the lady skaters who lack flexibility (which seem to be the majority). I instinctively look for beautiful body lines and extension, and I can’t help but cringe when I see awkward, ungainly positions.

And this is why I can be perfectly content watching top-class dancers or skaters practice even the simplest steps. There might be no music, they might be completely unaware of my presence and making no effort to perform, but the sheer beauty and apparent effortlessness of their movement is enough to keep me fascinated.

***

Beyond the exceptionally pretty technique, there is the innate musicality of Mao and Vishneva that I admire. Other dancers and skaters may seem to respond well to the music, they may seem to express it well, but in the case of Mao and Vishneva, I feel as if the music is flowing through them.

A friend of Rudolf Nureyev once exclaimed, “You are a Stradivarius,” while watching him dance on the grass without any music other than the beat of his own heart. “Inside you are singing, and the steps are coming.” This is what I feel when I watch Vishneva and Mao: their bodies seem to be the very instruments producing the sound.

To me, they are able to do this because they use their entire bodies—not just the arms and the face, but the entire torso and back—to express the music. I am used to watching ballet from the back of the balcony. I can barely see the performer’s face, but if she carries the music in her body—in the curve of her back, the tension her shoulder blades—then I can feel the emotion. Expression through the body is extremely important to me.

Mao Asada dancing to the music in her heart

(This is from the 'making of' video for Mao's 2009 Asience CM.)

But what about “performing”?

Musings on artistry (Part 1)—My conundrum

2010-05-02T15:01:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted about Mao's journey for awhile, and I do intend to get back to that eventually, but in the meantime, here are some of my thoughts on artistry--this is something I've thought a lot about recently...

****

For me, summer means ballet, and last year’s season gave me fresh fodder for determining what exactly I consider to be superior “artistry” and “expression.”

And after 2009 Worlds, when everyone was raving incessantly about Yu-Na Kim, I felt a need to analyze and articulate why I disliked her style so much. Although I had never been a fan of hers, I could readily acknowledge that she was very good: she has huge, powerful jumps, great speed and a discernable polish to her performances. Starting in the 2008-09 season, however, her style and expression really began to annoy me.

As I mentioned in one of my early posts, comparing Mao Asada and Yu-Na Kim is quite tricky. They lack the obvious physical differences that separate, say, gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. So by analyzing and articulating why I like Mao and why I don’t like Yu-Na, I have learned a lot about what I personally value in terms of aesthetics, expression and artistry.

***

I freely acknowledge (and have often seen) that other people will disagree with my opinions. I took ballet lessons from a very young age and played the violin; those experiences have definitely shaped my views on artistry. But I think that most people haven’t had the classical training I received, so they don’t look for ballet lines, and they focus primarily on facial expression instead of full-body expression.

Ballerina on ice

I had long known that I loved Mao because she is a ballerina on ice—such flexibility, such gorgeous lines, such graceful lightness. On the other hand, Yu-Na lacks flexibility (though not as badly as others), and although she might be “dramatic,” she generally is not that graceful, and she does not emote through her whole body.

And up until summer 2009, I figured that I favored Mao, who was sometimes accused of lacking expression in her face, because facial expression doesn’t really matter to me.

Indeed, I had a clear history of picking the graceful, beautiful, subtle performers as my favorites—even though others called them “cold,” “expressionless,” or “boring.” During the 2008 Summer Olympics, I was a big fan of Nastia Liukin, with her gorgeous lines and balletic grace, but others called her “bitchy-looking” compared to the “effervescent” Shawn Johnson. And it was not until I saw the willowy, ethereal Julie Kent that I became obsessed with ballet, even though others found her “cold.” Even my favorite violinist, Julia Fischer, is notoriously anti-flashy, anti-celebrity; she uses her superlative technical talent to let the beauty of the music speak for itself.

Last summer, however, the legendary ballerina Diana Vishneva turned my world upside down. Here was a performer who is known as much for her force-of-nature on-stage persona as for her “exceptionally pretty technique.”

Here was an artist who demands attention and so fully captivates viewers that the New York Times dance critic Alastair Macauley once wrote, “The sheer luster of her presence is often startling; I know of no dancer today who so gloriously seems a source of light.”

Diana Vishneva in Don Quixote

After the Opening Night Gala where I saw her dance live for the first time, she became my absolute, uncontestable favorite.

But this development created quite a conundrum for me. How could I reconcile my adoration of the soft, subtle Mao Asada and my love for the fiery Vishneva? And how could I so turned off by Yu-Na Kim’s diva-ish performances but awed by Vishneva’s ability to own the stage? How could I make sense of these seemingly contradictory preferences?

World Championships 2010—So like 2008, and so unlike (2)

2010-04-04T14:58:00.000-04:00

Going into the free program, I didn’t know what to expect. Would Yu-Na be able to pull herself together? If so, how would the judges score her? What about Mirai Nagasu? It’s clear the judges favor her; if she skates clean, would she win? And what about Mao herself—would she be able to pull off that perfect program she’d been aiming for?

I could have woken up early to watch the competition live, but since I was somewhat dreading the results, I decided to watch the free program a few hours after it was broadcast.

As with the short program, the Universal Sports broadcast started with the second-to-last group. Miki Ando went out and skated a clean program. She may have lacked some confidence and emotion in the beginning, but by the end, Miki really got into the music. Her coach, Nikolai Morozov, looked very pleased. But I agreed with what Tara Lipinski said—Miki has the potential to be on the podium at every competition, but she just looks a little scared. I wonder why?

Right after Miki, Yu-Na Kim took the ice. Since the beginning of the season, I had thought her long program was rather boring; I much preferred her 2008-09 “Scheherazade” program. But I freely admit that she skated it perfectly at the Olympics, out-of-place Bond girl poses and all. Here at Worlds, however, when Yu-Na was struggling, the program was simply a snooze for me. Yu-Na looked shaken up when she fell on her triple salchow (a problematic jump for her), she popped the final double axel, and she generally seemed flat throughout her program.

But of course, with Yu-Na being the Olympic champion and undeniable judges’ favorite, she received a whopping 130.49 for her mess of a program. It was a ridiculous score, but it did leave the door open for Mao and Mirai. Given their leads after the short program, they only had to score about 122 or 120 to beat her, and those scores were definitely within their capabilities.

***

In the final group, home favorite Carolina Kostner skated first. In the long program at the 2009 World Championships, I was there in the Staples Center when she had a meltdown on the ice, turning almost all her jumps into singles. This year, however, she put out a generally clean performance, and the crowd rewarded her with a huge applause. When her score of 115.11 came out, however, they booed.

As Mao took the ice, I worried, thinking, “I hope the unruly crowd doesn’t ruin Mao’s focus!”

2010 World Championships FS (British EuroSport commentary)
“Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2” by Sergei Rachmaninoff

When the ominous opening phrase of “Bells” played, I felt my throat constrict. Unlike the day before, I had no idea what would happen. Visions of Mao’s terrifying slip before her opening triple axel in her 2008 long program flashed before my eyes. Here it comes! And landed!! Not as huge as at the Olympics, and with a slight off-balance moment on the landing, but otherwise clean.

Now it was time for the triple axel/double toe loop combo—beautiful! Clean so far! I started to relax as Mao nailed the triple flip/double loop combo and then the triple loop.

But then it was time for the jumps that Mao missed at the Olympics. I tensed up as she launched the triple flip/double loop/double loop combo—but it was perfect. And then the triple toe loop (gulp!)—landed with determination. Finally, the double axel from the outside spread eagle. She did it!! Perfectly clean!!!

Now she could go out and KILL the step sequence!! I got a little worried when I saw some debris on the ice, but Mao easily avoided it, and at the very end, when she thrust her hands into the air, she could not hold back a smile. Yes! I did it, she thought, swinging her arms in front of her.

THAT was the program I wanted to see. And THAT was the joy and relief I had wanted to see on Mao’s face.

But then it was time for the scores. Mao looked so nervous—later she even said she was afraid to look at the scores.

The judges HAVE to give her a better score than Yu-Na Kim, I thought. That was perfect! It would be a travesty to score that below Kim, I thought!

Mao’s score—129.50. I couldn’t believe it. Or rather, I could believe it; I mean, I had known all along that the scoring would be hugely biased toward Yu-Na. But I didn’t think that the judging would be so egregiously unfair.

What kind of system is this, that the girl who falls on a jump, pops another one, and is generally lackluster, outscores the girl who went clean (to the naked eye), did TWO triple axels, and got the whole crowd on its feet?

What kind of system is this, that Mao can look so satisfied after she finished skating, knowing in her heart that she had done everything perfectly—but still have to sit in the kiss ‘n’ cry and worry about how low the judges will score her?

It was simply disgusting. For me, it no longer mattered if Mao went on to win the competition. The score was a clear slap in the face, in my opinion. And you could see it in Mao’s reaction. There were no tears of joy as there had been at 2008 Worlds. She looked disappointed.

***

Near the end of the competition, I found myself in the distinctly uncomfortable competition of having to root against Mirai Nagasu, whom I do really like. She had a clear shot at the gold, but she made mistakes on both of her triple lutzes and then fell on a double axel.

The gold was officially Mao’s, for the second time. She had become the first Japanese person to ever win two World golds, and she had helped bring Japan its first men’s/ladies’ duo gold. But I still felt hugely dissatisfied.

How could I go on watching skating if the judging is like this?

***

The following day, I started to feel better. Seeing Mao smile always makes me smile.

(That’s Daisuke’s signature!)

A gold, is a gold, after all, and I certainly hadn’t been expecting it. And Mao had gotten her wish—to beat Yu-Na Kim properly, one last time.

2010 World Championships podium: Yu-Na Kim (Silver), Mao Asada (Gold), Laura Lepisto (Bronze)

***

21-year old pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, who won the prestigious Van Cliburn piano competition in 2009 despite being blind from birth, once said that he admires Mao Asada because “even if her condition is not good in the beginning, she always makes a comeback and wins.”

That is exactly what Mao had done here. She could walk away knowing that she had skated perfectly (to the naked eye); she done everything she could, and she won that gold medal fair and square.

And that is why I will go on watching figure skating. Because deep down inside, I do believe that Mao Asada can win back the judge’s favor, even if Yu-Na Kim were to continue competing.

Because no one else has that ethereal quality and lightness on the ice like Mao Asada. No other skater is so like a ballerina. No one else embodies the music—yes, not expresses but BECOMES the music—like Mao.

If Mao plays to those strengths, or if Mao brought out her sparkling personality in her programs like she does in her exhibition programs, then I believe that the judges and the fans will fall in love with her all over again.

Tracy Wilson, one of Yu-Na’s advisors, was critical of Mao’s programs during the competition, but even she could not help but be completely charmed by Mao’s “Caprice.”

2010 World Championship Exhibition Gala
“Caprice” by Niccolo Paganini

So I believe that if Mao does choose audience-pleasing music and programs, she WILL regain the judge’s favor and get those high scores she deserves.

But even if she doesn’t—even if Mao decides to use difficult music because she likes it, even if she chooses absurdly difficult programs because she wants to challenge herself, and even if the judges continue to bash her—I will forever be a fan.

Because behind that brilliant smile and sweet countenance, I can see the adamantine soul of a TRUE athlete, a TRUE champion—one who aims not to win, but to test the utmost limits of her potential, and that of her sport.

World Championships 2010—So like 2008, and so unlike (1)

2010-04-04T14:35:00.000-04:00

On first glance, Mao’s second World Championship win was strikingly similar to the first: not only did it take place in Europe, but it also occurred right after parted ways with her coach. And just like in 2008, Mao was second after the short program, and placed second in the long program behind Yu-Na Kim, but she did enough to win.

However, unlike 2008 Worlds, which left me with a feeling of triumphant euphoria, the 2010 World Championships left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. One of my friends, equally disgusted, asked me, “How can you go on watching figure skating when the judging is like this?”

***

My own thinking before 2010 Worlds was similar to my thinking before 2008 Worlds—back then, after seeing how the judges had scored a flawed Yu-Na Kim so closely to a nearly-perfect Mao in the 2007 GPF LP, I didn’t feel like watching Worlds. If Mao could not win, then I had little interest in skating.

The same thing happened to be before the 2010 Worlds. After seeing the ludicrous scores the judges gave to Yu-Na Kim at the Olympics, the message was clear to me: as long as Yu-Na Kim shows up, they’ll give her the gold. Heck, she doesn’t even have to jump!

Sure, there was a possibility that Yu-Na Kim would make mistakes. She probably had lost motivation after the Olympics and probably didn’t practice as hard. On the other hand, the judges were clearly behind her, and she must have been very aware of that—so there was absolutely no need for her to be nervous; she could go in being 100% confident that the judges would boost her scores.

As for Mao, well, I knew that she’d be motivated because she wanted to make up for those mistakes that she made in her long program at the Olympics. That’s all I really wanted for her—to do two programs that she could be completely satisfied with. But honestly, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing her programs again; although Mao managed to do the best she could with them, they were not my favorite programs of hers. And moreover, I thought, what’s the point? Yu-Na will win anyway.

Mao in practice (March 25)

***

On the day of the Ladies’ short program, I tried hard to avoid seeing the results before I could watch the competition myself. But despite my best efforts, four of my friends partially gave away the results by sending me messages like, “Did you see the headline, ‘Mirai Nagasu shines while Queen Kim struggles’?”

So when I finally sat down to watch the competition later that night, I had some idea what had happened, but not the whole story.

The Universal Sports broadcast started right in the middle of Carolina Kostner’s performance, which was right before Mao’s.

Although I had tried to distance myself from the competition, my heart inevitably began to race as Mao took the ice. Here we go!!

The all-important opening triple axel—she nailed it! The flip—clean as a whistle!! Oh boy, Mao is on tonight! She didn’t quite have that spontaneous, genuine joy that she did at the Olympics, but she seemed much faster in the SP than she did there.

2010 World Championships SP (British Eurosport commentary)
“Waltz” from “Masquerade Suite” by Aram Khatchaturian

At the end of the program, Mao looked quite satisfied.

The only question was, how would the judges score it?

I knew Mao had scored 73.78 at the Olympics, so I was very disappointed when a mere 68.08 flashed on the screen. The triple axel must have gotten downgraded, I thought. Poor Mao! However, Mao herself did not look too disappointed.

Mao and Shanetta Folle in the kiss 'n' cry

So cute!

(I wonder who she's looking at!)

A few skaters later, Miki Ando took the ice. She seemed to hesitate for a long time before her opening triple lutz combo, and as a result, she fell on the lutz, missing the combo completely. Not good! (She eventually ended up 11th after the short).

Then Laura Lepisto skated. She nearly fell on the double axel, and yet her score was barely 4 points below Mao’s. Then I really began to feel mad about Mao’s score.

In the final group, Mirai Nagasu was the first to skate. Now, she is my second favorite skater. I love her bubbly personality, her lightning speed, and her amazing spins and flexibility. But she doesn’t even come close to Mao for me. So I felt strangely torn when I saw her score higher than Mao: 70.40.

Truthfully, I probably enjoyed Mirai’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” program more than I enjoyed Mao’s “Masquerade Waltz.” I could easily see why your average skating fan, as well as a judge, would enjoy it more. (Mao, please, please get a new costume designer!) But that didn’t mean I thought Mirai was the better skater. I mean, Mao did a friggin’ triple axel!

The underlying message from the judges was loud and clear: we don’t want to see triple axels; we will downgrade your triple axels; don’t use heavy music, choose something bubbly and pretty.

On the Universal Sports broadcast, Johnny Weir remarked that he thought Mao’s triple axels were sometimes downgraded even though they were clean. It was gratifying to hear Johnny criticize the judging like this, but it did not make the situation any less frustrating.

I had thought that the change in the rules to prevent the judges from seeing the underrotation calls would help Mao, because the judges wouldn’t see the underrotation in real-time, and therefore would give her the positive GOE’s she deserved. However, it seemed like the opposite was occurring; the judges weren’t sure if her triple axel was fully rotated, so they proactively assumed that it was downgraded and assigned negative GOE’s. Not a good situation for Mao.

***

After Mirai’s sparkling short, it was finally time for “The Queen.” And at first, it seemed like business as usual. Perfect triple lutz/triple toe loop combination. A bit of a two-foot/funny landing on the triple flip, but she always struggles with that jump. Then the weird stuff started to happen. I’ve always thought Yu-Na Kim’s spins and spirals were very weak, and now, she finally botched them. She nearly fell out of a spin, and she had to stop her spiral sequence midway to avoid falling.

Still, despite those bizarre mistakes, she pretty much landed all her jumps, so I was expecting a huge score. For once, however, the judges gave me a pleasant surprise—only 60.30 for her messy performance, which seemed quite fair given it was about 18 points below her record score at the Olympics. (Though of course I knew that if Mao did something like that, she’d barely make 50 points.)

Yu-Na Kim ended up 7th after the short program. She wouldn’t even skate in the final group. Shocking. Truly shocking.

But the competition was not over yet. If Yu-Na skated perfectly in the long program and the judges gave her another 150 score, she would be extremely difficult to beat...

Addendum
1) Press conference after the short

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 19

2010-03-10T22:36:00.000-05:00

Part 19: 2008-09 season—“It’s a secret” [秘密です。]

On New Year’s Day 2009, Mao Asada and her father visited Atsuda Jingu [Atsuda Shrine] in Nagoya. It was very crowded, so they didn’t make it to the heart of the shrine, but Mao enjoyed stopping at all the stalls and eating food from the street vendors.

Throughout the rest of January, Mao Asada performed in a number of ice shows—Stars on Ice, the Japan Super Challenge, the Nagoya Figure Skating Festival, etc. Some of the fans on the Mao Asada Fan Forum expressed concern that Mao was overextending herself; in fact, some of them thought she should skip the upcoming Four Continents Championship altogether.

Stars on Ice (January 2009)

Although I agreed that there was a risk of injury/exhaustion, I wasn’t worried. After all, Mao had done all those shows in 2008 AND gone to Four Continents, and she had done just fine at Worlds (even with the ankle injury beforehand!). And since 4CC was the test competition for the Olympics, I thought it would be a good chance for Mao to become familiar with the Olympic arena, as well as the logistics of getting there, adjusting to the time difference, etc.

But as I wrote last year, the 2009 Four Continents Championship did not go as expected. (Please see here for my detailed writeup.) There were all sorts of unexpected problems. The rink in the Pacific Coliseum was an NHL-sized one instead of an Olympic-sized one, her coach, Tatiana Tarasova, inexplicably was not there, and Mao seemed to be having problems with her jumps.

In the short program, Mao made multiple mistakes, leaving the door way open for Yu-Na Kim. And Yu-Na Kim, perhaps still feeling the sting of losing to Mao at home in Korea, charged right through it. She skated right after Mao and laid down a perfect program, garnering a huge applause and a new record score.

Mao in her blue ‘Clair de Lune’ costume

(This was the only time she used it.)

Mao ended up 6th after the short, almost 15 points behind the leader (Yu-Na Kim). And I was crushed.

***

I feebly tried to assure myself that Mao could fight her way back from this; I thought of similar situations at 2007 Worlds and the 2008 Grand Prix Final, but I was really demoralized.

Thankfully, Mao Asada is a skater that never leaves you in despair for too long. Perhaps that’s why I’ve managed to stay a fan for so long: because every time she stumbles or fails, she does something to give you hope again.

And so it went in the long program. It was one of Mao’s weaker performances—she popped the opening triple axel, and she doubled a triple toe loop, but the amazing part was that by the end of the night, it was the winning free program.

Yes, after Mao skated, skater after skater proceeded to make all kinds of mistakes, and somehow, despite her dumbed-down program and a few misses, she still won the long program. It was not nearly enough to win the competition, but it was enough for a medal.

Mao Asada and Shanetta Folle in the kiss ‘n’ cry

And more importantly, it made me think, “Wow, a struggling Mao Asada with two visible errors is still better than Joannie and Yu-Na with one visible mistake each!”

After the short program, I had been devastated, but after the long program, I was elated. “Getting bronze here will definitely push Mao to get gold at Worlds!” I thought.

***

But what exactly had happened to Mao Asada?

A number of media sources speculated that the reason for Mao’s poor condition and her decision to lower the difficulty of her program were due to an injury. But when Mao was questioned, she completely denied having an injury, and instead said, “I know what the problem is. It’s a secret.”

Not until Mao Asada, Brilliant Eighteen was released, did I find out what that secret was.

It was not an injury; it had nothing to do with Tarasova not being there; it was simply a lack of motivation, and some burnout. Something Mao had never experienced before.

Before Four Continents, when Mao was debating whether she should even go to 4CC, Tarasova sent her this message [translated from the Japanese, as printed on pg 78 in the Mao Asada first photo book]

To my beloved Mao:

If you ask me why I want skaters to go to competitions even when they're going through a tough time, it's because if they can give a wonderful and strong performance at that kind of time, then their rivals will grow to fear them.
I even ordered Yagudin to work hard to win every competition.
No matter if he was going through a tough time.
This desire to try your best not to lose—you have to have it not just for yourself, but for your rivals too.
This feeling will become a powerful psychological weapon against your rivals, and it will translate into confidence for you.

I know you’re a strong person.

The moment that you skate, can you focus and do those things that you haven’t been able to do up to now?
That is my question for you.
You may think that you’re not very good at the short program, but I don’t want you to feel doubts about it.
I believe that your decision will be the right decision.

Tarasova may have wanted Mao to win to “strike fear into the hearts” of the other skaters, but that is not how Mao Asada thinks. She says that she “hates to lose,” but I think that more than winning, she wants to be the best skater that she can be. Making her rivals afraid, destroying them, is not her goal. Every competition is a chance to battle with herself, a chance to test her limits, a chance to fulfill the challenging goals she has set.

So at this point in time, I’m not surprised that Mao Asada found herself lacking motivation. After all, she had accomplished all of her goals for the season. Salchow reintroduced? Check. Lutz edge fixed? Check. Two triple axels rotated in the free program? Check. Third straight National Championships title? Check. What more was left for her to do?

But Mao learned her lesson.

In Mao Asada, Brilliant Eighteen, Mao reflected on her 2009 4CC experience and said:

(pg 93)

I couldn't believe it myself, but for the first time in my life, I didn't want to go to the competition. I wasn't skating well at all, and I had a problem with motivation. At any rate, I couldn't control my emotions/thoughts. Tatiana-sensei scolded me. 'Don't think about anything other than going to the competition, and pull yourself together.'

She also added (pg 94):

I realized that I couldn't let my motivation fall like that. This is something that Tatiana-sensei pointed out later.
The truth is, before 4CC, Sensei and I weren't seeing eye-to-eye. I couldn't communicate my thoughts at all. And I guess, because of that, I wasn't able to pull myself together.
One more thing--I think the fact that Worlds was coming up soon also had an influence...The competition was coming closer and closer, but I couldn't improve my skating condition, and I became a little nervous. 4CC became a good learning experience for me. In the end, you have to overcome everything by yourself.
You have to do the things you are supposed to do. I think that is a really important thing.

So in the end, Mao's difficult experience leading up to 4CC became a lesson for her. And I think this is another reason why I am a Mao fan. Although it can be heartbreaking to watch her make mistakes or fail to meet her goals, I also see her learning from mistakes and growing. Before my eyes, I feel that she is evolving from that sweet, innocent, adorable girl into a mature, strong, and wise young woman. And that certainly has been rewarding to watch!

***

Soon after Four Continents, Chuukyou University opened a new sub-rink, the Rainbow Rink, which was nicknamed "Miki and Mao" in honor of the two World champions. Mao, Miki Ando and Takahiko Kozuka (among others) performed in the opening ceremony. Mao’s former coach (but ever-faithful mentor), Machiko Yamada, acted as MC.

Rainbow Rink opening ceremony/performance

(See more news vids from the opening ceremony on this page.)

When Coach Machiko interviewed Mao, she said, “Before the Four Continents Championship, you said, ‘I can’t get motivated! Sensei, what should I do?’ You’ve never suffered like that before, have you? But, you were able to get (good) scores, so from now on, I think that you’ll be able to try your best any time. Do your best!”

Mao said, “My performance at Four Continents was not my best, so I really felt strongly that I want to try my best for the World Championships. I absolutely want to give a good performance at Worlds.”

So as I had expected, Mao's poor showing at 4CC had given her the motivation to work hard for Worlds. She had found that fighting spirit again and would take Worlds by storm!

Or so I hoped...

Analyzing Mao Asada as a Miller tragic heroine

2010-03-07T18:18:00.002-05:00

I will be resuming my posts on Mao Asada's journey soon, but in the meantime, I couldn't help but indulge my inner literary theorist. ^_^;; Sometimes I think I really should have been a Literature major!
______________________________________________________________________

In the midst of my depression after watching Mao Asada compete at the Olympics and fail to win her desired gold medal, I found myself reflecting on Arthur Miller’s classic essay on tragedy, “Tragedy and the Common Man.”

On tragedy, Miller writes:

“As a general rule, to which there may be exceptions unknown to me, I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity. From Orestes to Hamlet, Medea to Macbeth, the underlying struggle is that of the individual attempting to gain his ‘rightful’ position in his society…Tragedy, then, is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly.”

“In the sense of having been initiated by the hero himself, the tale always reveals what has been called his ‘tragic flaw,’ a failing that is not peculiar to grand or elevated characters. Nor is it necessarily a weakness. The flaw, or crack in the characters, is really nothing-and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status.”

In other words, a story is considered “tragic” when you have a protagonist who will do anything, perhaps even give up his life, in order to defend what he believes in, in order to defend his dignity. The “tragic flaw,” which leads to the protagonist’s downfall, is really a failure to compromise, an absolute belief in one’s self and one’s ideas.

For example, in Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible,” which is based on the Salem witch trials, protagonist John Proctor is executed because he refuses to lie; he refuses to falsely confess to witchcraft even though it would save his life. In Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet,” the protagonists sacrifice their lives because of their steadfast belief that their love should trump any earthly opposition, any trivial family feud.

In the case of Mao Asada, I see her absolute belief in her programs and her triple axel as her “tragic flaw,” her point of no compromise. After her disastrous showing at the Cup of Russia, everyone urged her to change her programs and her jump layout. Even her coach, Tatiana Tarasova suggested they change her programs. But Mao Asada refused to budge. She steadfastly believed that she could make her programs work, she believed that she could land those triple axels, and she believed that the combination could win her the gold medal. In her mind, if she could successfully accomplish her programs, then her “rightful position” would be Olympic champion.

Miller adds:

“Now, if it is true that tragedy is the consequence of a man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly, his destruction in the attempt posits a wrong or an evil in his environment. And this is precisely the morality of tragedy and its lesson…The tragic right is a condition of life, a condition in which the human personality is able to flower and realize itself. The wrong is the condition which suppresses man, perverts the flowing out of his love and creative instinct.”

Tragic heroes meet their downfall not because they are wrong, but because the environment is unfair, corrupt, or evil. It is this environment that prevents the tragic hero from realizing his full potential, his full aims. And this is why tragedy exposes the flaws in the environment, it teaches us what is wrong with the system.

For example, in “The Crucible,” John Proctor is not able to save himself and bring the true culprits to justice because he refuses to adhere to the corrupt, fear-driven justice system. In the end, although he is innocent, he is hung in the gallows. This story shows us the evil side of witch hunts. In “Romeo and Juliet,” the protagonists are not able to live “happily ever after” because of an acrimonious family feud. This story teaches us the wrongness of perpetuating feuds, of asking children to pay for the sins of their parents.

And in the case of Mao Asada, I think the fact she was not rewarded for what she did in the short program and the fact that she probably would have lost by a large margin even if she had skated clean in the free implies that there is something wrong with the judging system.

You may argue that if Mao Asada and her team wanted to win, they should have played more strategically, they should have milked the system. They should have clearly known what the base value of her programs were before the Olympics; they should have known that the judges were not rewarding her jumps with the GOEs they wanted and not rewarding her programs with high PCS.

But that’s not the point. Mao Asada believed she should win with these programs; in their hearts, they believed that the skater with the most difficulty—the one with the triple axel, with the most complex footwork, with the most exhausting program—should be the one who wins. Mao Asada remained committed to these programs not only because she thought she could win with them, but also because she believed they represented what the best in figure skating SHOULD be. But that’s not what the system rewarded. And since I view these result as a tragedy, I see the system as wrong.

***

There is one more point about Miller’s view on tragedies that I want to discuss.

About the meaning of tragedies, Miller writes:

“There is a misconception of tragedy with which I have been struck in review after review, and in many conversations with writers and readers alike. It is the idea that tragedy is of necessity allied to pessimism. Even the dictionary says nothing more about the word than that it means a story with a sad or unhappy ending. This impression is so firmly fixed that I almost hesitate to claim that in truth tragedy implies more optimism in its author than does comedy, and that its final result ought to be the reinforcement of the onlooker’s brightest opinions of the human animal.”

Yes, tragedy may be sad, it may be depressing, but it is not pessimistic. Surprisingly, it is through tragedy that we can glimpse the full potential of humanity and the greatness of the human soul.

Miller writes:

“Pathos truly is the mode for the pessimist. But tragedy requires a nicer balance between what is possible and what is impossible. And it is curious, although edifying, that the plays we revere, century after century, are the tragedies. In them, and in them alone, lies the belief-optimistic, if you will, in the perfectibility of man.”

And that is why I will continue to be a Mao fan even if she tragically fails to win. Because in her steadfast will to stand by the programs she wants to do and her desire to challenge the technical barriers, I do feel I am glimpsing “the indestructible will of man” and an attempt to reach perfection.

Even if it doesn’t win her points with the judges, Mao Asada makes me believe that the impossible might just be possible.

And as Miller says, it is those tragic heroes, those tragedies, that we remember, and revere, century after century.

Welcome home, Mao-chan!

2010-03-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

Mao arrived in Tokyo from Vancouver!

Congratulations on making world and Olympic history by landing three triple axels for the first time EVER!!

And congratulations on winning a splendid silver medal!

As a fan, I went through a whirlwind of emotions while watching the Olympics, but I think I can’t properly explain myself without first explaining what happened in 2009. So please look for my full post on the Olympics in the near future.

Most of all, thanks for this smile!

NO安全策　[No safety strategy]

2010-02-22T21:56:00.000-05:00

Mao Asada finally arrived in Vancouver last Saturday! And she looked so excited!!

Yesterday she had her first official practice. So nice to see Mama Tarasova there again!

Mao looked so happy and relaxed!

And I LOVE her pants!

***

Well, I had hoped to finish my series on Mao’s journey before the ladies’ competition, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to make it, so I’m going to post this now. It consists of my final thoughts before the competition.

******

There was once a young girl with a beaming smile and sparkling eyes, and all she knew was that she loved to skate and that her dream was to go to the Olympics and win the gold medal. Her name was Mao Asada.

All her life, she had been chasing after her older sister, Mai, and her older sisters at the rink—Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano. “One day I’ll be better than them,” she told herself; “one day I’ll be the best skater in the world!”

At age 14, she set off on the junior circuit, easily surpassing the competition. But back then, there was no pressure; it was only fun.

For the shy girl who placed a distant second, however, it was a major blow to her pride. “Why did she have to be born at the same time as me?” she lamented. “How can I ever beat her?”

The next year, she watched jealously as Mao Asada charmed the judges, the audiences and the world on the senior circuit and defeated the World champion to win gold at the Grand Prix Final. (Rumor has it that she even wished Mao Asada would fall.) But jealousy also gave her strong motivation. “One day, I’ll beat Mao,” the girl thought. Her name was Yu-Na Kim.

***

Over the next few seasons, the joyful girl began to fade away. The girl who knew no fear and no pressure now suddenly found herself at the top, and she started to worry about winning. Sometimes she’d be weak-hearted, and sometimes she’d be unbelievably strong. But all through this period, one theme guided her: “challenge.”

What does it mean to be the best skater in the world if you’re not the best skater you can possibly be?

So the little girl who vowed to master the triple axel now tried to push the technical barriers in every aspect of her programs—the most complex step sequences, the most difficult spiral positions, the most body-contorting spins. But her path was risky—sometimes it led to stunning success, and sometimes to devastating defeat.

The little boat that once coasted across a calm sea dared to test itself in treacherous waters, and it encountered increasingly tumultuous waves, each swell larger than the last.

The other girl took the opposite path; she chose “safety.” Every year, she chose to do basically the same programs, but every year she’d do them better; she perfected them. She emphasized her strengths and downplayed her weaknesses, and she learned how to play to the judges. Slowly she gained confidence and emerged from her shell. And slowly and steadily, she climbed to the top.

***

Now that once painfully shy girl is the reigning world champion and the heavy favorite for the Olympic gold medal. Her fans call her “Queen Yu-Na,” and her behavior has been queen-like indeed. A year ago, she complained that other skaters were obstructing her during warm-up; this year she told her fans to tone down their cheers. And when she heard that Mao Asada didn’t make the 2009 Grand Prix Final, she couldn’t suppress a smirk.

At the Olympics, she has set herself apart from the other competitors; she has eschewed the athlete village for a hotel room where she can have easy access to her staff, and she has refused to do any interviews until after the short program.

She will undoubtedly stand on the ice as if she is the ruler of the rink, but I wonder: behind that self-assured, regal façade, how much is left of that shy girl who once bitterly thought, “How can I ever beat Mao?”

***

On the other side, there is a girl with a beaming smile and sparkling eyes savoring every moment of the Olympics as she aims for a gold medal.

Once she was a little girl who knew nothing of fear; now she is a young woman who knows there is nothing to fear. Because in this season, Mao Asada fell into her deepest slump yet; she hit a wave she could not weather, and plunged into a sea of self-doubt and despair.

But she was not alone. All her life, she had been loved and supported by her coaches, family and friends, and with their help, she was able to find that girl who loved to skate, the one who vowed to be the best skater in the world.

And as fire tempers the strongest sword, her suffering has forged a steely soul.

So I think she will face her biggest challenge without fear. Buoyed by love—love from her supporters and love for skating—she will conquer that monumental wave, and soar above the others to take the gold medal.

***

GO MAO!!! 頑張れ、真央ちゃん！！！

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 18

2010-02-21T00:21:00.002-05:00

Part 18: 2008-09 season—“With a fighting spirit” [攻める気持ちで]

After the NHK Trophy, Mao Asada said in her interviews that she had rediscovered her fighting spirit. At TEB, they had decided to leave out the second triple axel, but since she had been practicing with two triple axels all along, deciding to take the conservative route made her feel slightly weak-hearted. At the NHK Trophy, however, Mao was aggressive; she went for it, and she nearly succeeded. She vowed to carry that fighting spirit, that 攻める気持ち [semeru kimochi] with her to her next competition—the Grand Prix Final. It would be held in “enemy territory”—Goyang, Korea.

At this point, I had only been following Mao very closely for about 8 months, but it seemed like the hype surrounding this competition was unprecedented. Mao Asada and Yu-Na Kim face off in Yu-Na’s home country! In the Japanese media, there was practically no mention of the other 4 competitors; all eyes were focused on the ‘battle’ between the two 18-year olds.

Popular opinion said that the Grand Prix Final was Yu-Na’s to lose—she was the two-time reigning Grand Prix Final champ, she had put up the highest scores so far that season, and she was competing in her home country, where she would have the roaring support of the crowd.

But after seeing Mao win NHK Trophy the way that she did, I had a good feeling that she might just snatch that GPF title from Yu-Na’s hands.

***

Well, Mao Asada’s story is ever exciting and ever unpredictable, and in this case she caused me a bit of nervousness when she had a bit of a mishap on her way to the Korea. Mao always likes to arrive right before a competition, but this time, her plane was delayed due to bad weather and she arrived in Korea a few hours late. So late, in fact, that she missed the first half of morning practice! But in typical Mao fashion, she didn’t let this little incident faze her.

In the short program, Mao skated 4th. Before she took the ice, she looked so nervous. Oh no! I thought. She looks so nervous, this is bad!

My heart was racing as she set up for her problematic combo—but she landed it! Then it was time for the triple lutz—beautiful! Phew! Now I could relax and enjoy the program. And how beautiful it had become after that disastrous first performance in Paris!

2008 Grand Prix Final SP
“Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy

(She received the highest score for a spiral in the SP!)

Shanetta Folle, Mao and Tatiana Tarasova in the kiss ‘n’ cry

Mao scored 65.38, slightly higher than what she scored at the NHK Trophy.

The 5th skater, Joannie Rochette, who looked so strong in her GP events, faltered here and was 4th with one skater left.

And that skater was Yu-Na Kim. As she opened up with her triple-flip/triple-toe loop combo and hit it clean, I thought, well, I guess she’s on tonight. But then on the next jump, the triple lutz, she popped it! Shocking! But great for Mao, I thought. Mao went clean! She should lead after the short!

Regardless of Yu-Na’s mistake, the crowd went wild. Absolutely bonkers.

And when the score came out, 65.94, the crowd roared, and I thought, “What the hell?! How did she make a glaring mistake and still end up ahead of Mao? Oh wait, I forgot, this is in KOREA! Duh! What was I thinking? Did I really think it would be a FAIR competition in Korea? Of course not.”

I looked at the protocols, and I saw what had happened. Mao’s triple loop in her combo had gotten downgraded again.

You see, in the 2008-09 season, ISU decided to judge rotations more strictly, and as a result Mao kept receiving downgrades for her combo. She wasn’t the only one; Miki Ando, who typically did the triple-lutz/triple-loop combo, also started getting downgrades. I thought this was upsetting not just because I wanted my favorite skaters to get credit for their jumps, but because I love the loop combos with their quick pop-pop timing, and I hate that the strict judging system has rendered them all but extinct.

At any rate, with one popped jump from Yu-Na and one downgraded combo from Mao, they ended up about even.

It would all come down to the free program.

***

I debated about staying up late and watching the competition live, since it would be held in the afternoon Korea time, which would translate to about 2:00a.m. here. But I decided to go to sleep. As I later realized, I really should have stayed up, because I ended up not being able to sleep; I just tossed and turned and felt nervous about the competition.

That afternoon, I set myself in front of my computer and prepared to watch. Mao Asada skated would be skating second-to-last, right before Yu-Na.

2008 Grand Prix Final LP
“Waltz” from “Masquerade Suite” by Aram Khachaturian

See also this video for the British Eurosport commentary.
See this video for a widescreen version with no commentary.

Mao opened up with her first triple axel, and this time she was able to tack on the double toe loop. Then, the second axel—she landed it! Huge! She did it! The rest should be fine now!

And it was, until the triple flip-triple loop combo—Mao uncharacteristically fell on the flip. Oh no! I thought, there goes her shot at the gold! I thought she might pop the salchow, her weakness, but she landed it, and she skated the rest of her program cleanly.

Big hug from Tarasova

I was happy that Mao landed her triple axels and I thought they were clean, but I couldn’t quite celebrate yet because I knew she left the door open for Yu-Na Kim with that one fall.

Still, I couldn’t help but be charmed by Mao and TAT blowing kisses at the crowd.

***

Yu-Na Kim started her program in typical Yu-Na fashion—flawlessly. She reeled off her triple flip/triple toe combo, her triple lutz, and a big three jump combo. With every clean jump, my spirits started to wane.

But then, just as she had in the short program, she popped her second lutz. Still, that’s not as bad as Mao’s fall I thought. And then, on the next jump, the triple salchow, it happened—she fell. Oh my god!! Mao might win!! That’s two mistakes to Mao’s one!!

At the end of her program, Yu-Na looked like she knew she wasn’t going to win. But the crowd went insane anyway.

I still remember, I thought it was so funny when Yu-Na’s scores came out. Initially a big cheer and then a hush when they realized they weren’t high good enough.

Mao Asada had done it! She successfully landed two triple axels in her long program, becoming the first woman to ever do so, and she won the Grand Prix Final! And all in her rival’s home country!

She must have been so happy, and rightfully so. I was elated. As I headed to my birthday dinner that evening, I felt like I had already received the best present of all!

***

Two weeks later, Mao Asada went on to win her third straight Japan National Championships. It wasn’t a particularly great competition for her; she had some errors in both the short and long programs, but it was enough to win.

Mao and Tarasova in the kiss ‘n’ cry after the FS

Mao with the Japan Nationals trophy

And so the year 2008 came to a brilliant end. She had won every major competition, she had successfully landed a clean lutz, a salchow, and two triple axels, and she had won the Grand Prix Final in enemy territory. What more could you ask for?

***

Addendum
1) The 2008 Grand Prix Final was perhaps the last time I remember seeing Mao and Yu-Na look really friendly together. The whole atmosphere was great, with all the skaters seeming to have a fun time preparing for the gala.

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 17

2010-02-17T22:32:00.000-05:00

Part 17: 2008-09 season—“The me that is so strong that you can’t believe it” [信じられないぐらい強い自分]

Mao had two weeks before her next competition, the NHK Trophy in Japan. Instead of going home to Nagoya to train, which had been the original plan, Mao headed to Russia for an “emergency” training session.

Then the media started to reveal what had happened. Mao wasn’t quite used to Tarasova’s method yet. While Mao preferred to spend about 7-8 hours on the ice everyday, jumping, jumping, jumping until she was satisfied, Tarasova preferred short, very focused sessions (2-hour sessions, twice a day). Mao hadn’t yet gotten comfortable with cutting her on-ice practice time in half. In addition, she was still going through a “getting to know you” period with Tarasova. The failure at TEB taught Mao that she really had to communicate better with Tarasova and make sure that Tarasova understood what she was thinking and feeling.

Once I found that out, I felt relieved. There were clear reasons for Mao’s poor performance at TEB. There were tangible problems that Mao could fix. I started to look forward to NHK Trophy. Mao will surely rebound there, I thought. I even thought, I think Mao’s going to win the Grand Prix Final. Everyone’s calling Yu-Na the favorite, which means Mao can go out there with no pressure and beat Yu-Na in her own country!

***

At the NHK Trophy, Mao showed that “unbelievably strong” self. In the short program, she landed the triple-flip/triple-loop combo (though the loop was judged underrotated), and she landed the triple lutz cleanly from the outside edge!

2008 NHK Trophy SP (age 17)
“Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy

Tatiana Tarasova, Mao and Shanetta Folle in the kiss ‘n’ cry

In the free program, Mao landed the opening triple axel beautifully, but she didn’t do the combo as originally planned. That meant she’d have to tack on a double toe loop at the end of her next axel attempt. “Would she do it? Yes! She did it!! She landed two triple axels in the long program!! A world first!!”, I thought.

Mao then completed jump after jump, including the triple salchow. Her only “mistake” was making the triple-flip/triple-loop combo into a lone triple-flip. She poured all her energy into the final, exhausting step sequence—“Do it full out even if it kills you,” Tarasova had said—and she capped off her program with a hilarious near-fall on her ending pose. (That’s Mao Asada for you, always full of surprises!)

2008 NHK Trophy FS
"Waltz" from "Masquerade Suite" by Aram Khatchaturian
See it with British Eurosport commentary here.

In one competition, it seemed that Mao had accomplished all her jump goals—a clean lutz, a triple salchow, and two triple axels. But the last proved elusive—her second triple axel was judged underrotated.

I didn’t care. Mao had skated two clean (to the untrained eye) programs. It had been the first time she had done that since the 2005 Grand Prix Final. I was ecstatic. Even though Mao hadn’t gotten credit for her second triple axel, I was sure that that she’d be extra motivated to do it next time.

Tatiana Tarasova, Mao and Shanetta Folle in the kiss ‘n’ cry

(You can just feel the love and joy, can’t you?)

I was so thrilled by Mao’s win that I made my first earnest attempt to write about the Mao/Yu-Na rivalry, and why you should care about Mao Asada.

***

At the time, I thought it was only natural that Mao would come back strong after stumbling at the Trophee Eric Bompard (TEB). In reality, however, it seems that the “emergency” practice session in Russia did not go very well.

According to Mao Asada, Brilliant Eighteen, the latest book on Mao by Naoko Utsunomiya, Tarasova got really mad. She couldn’t understand why Mao couldn’t jump at TEB. She got so mad that she once threw a water bottle at Mao; it didn't reach her, but it got the staff wet. Her anger was so powerful that Mao was shocked and couldn't speak. (1)

Poor Mao might have been stunned and hurt at the time, but I think that this outburst was simply a manifestation of Tarasova’s strong love and belief in Mao. Tarasova’s staff said that no one had ever made TAT that mad before. She might have been worrying a bit about her own reputation as a coach, but I think the real reason why she was so mad was because she cares about Mao so much; she truly believes that Mao is the best, and she truly loves her.

Addenda
1) Mao and Nobunari Oda, winner of the men’s competition, on an NHK TV program the day after the competition.

Mao looks so cute in her kimono!

2) Read about Tarasova’s reaction to Mao’s NHK performance in the 8th post on this page (my translation of the first few pages of 浅田真央、18歳 [Mao Asada, Brilliant Eighteen]). There are more mini-translations from the book in the rest of the thread.

Endnotes
1) See pg 48 in Mao Asada, Brilliant Eighteen.

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 16

2010-02-17T22:11:00.002-05:00

Part 16: 2008-09 season—“The me that is sometimes weak-hearted” [時々心が弱くなる自分]

The 2008-09 season started with Yu-Na Kim putting on a stunning short program performance at the 2008 Skate America. She too had undergone an image change, piling on the eyeliner and playing the Asian dominatrix. Her music was Saint- Saëns’ “Danse Macabre,” which I thought suited her perfectly. And she simply killed it. She also slaughtered the competition at Skate America, and two weeks later, at the Cup of China.

Everyone kept raving about her performances, calling her the definite favorite for the Grand Prix Final, and even for the 2010 Olympics.

I was livid. How could they say that before Mao had a chance to skate?! I was dying for Mao come out and show everyone why she is so much better than Yu-Na Kim. Because although I could see that Yu-Na Kim skated very well, and I could understand why people would rave about ‘Danse Macabre,’ I personally was not very impressed. In fact, I thought she could have done more with the music in the step sequence, but I guess not everyone is as skilled with steps as Mao.

Moreover, while others raved about Yu-Na’s menacing expressions, I found them over-the-top and totally insincere. While watching her, I felt like someone had told her, “now look menacing here, make a sexy face there, and smile here.” She was carrying out the instructions perfectly, but it just looked so rehearsed and fake to me. After having watched a summer season of top-class international ballet stars, this kind of amateurish mugging for the audience did not qualify as “expression” to me.

***

Around this time, Mao appeared in a commercial for Asience shampoo.

Asience CM (Fall 2008)

Asience Wallpaper

Wow, I thought; she’s really starting to mature from that adorable little girl into a beautiful young lady.

In the commercial, Mao says, “The me that is sometimes weak-hearted...the me that is so strong that you can’t believe it...Both are me, and that is why I can shine.”

At the time, I had no idea that these words would characterize Mao’s 2008-09 season so perfectly.

***

In mid-November, Mao arrived in Paris for the fourth Grand Prix event of the season, the Trophee Eric Bompard, an event she had won twice before. From all that I had heard, Mao was in great condition, and she greeted the reporters in Paris with her typical Mao smile. I couldn’t wait to see Mao’s new programs and new costumes.

Now that the Grand Prix events were no longer being aired on TV in the US, I was forced to watch them online at IceNetwork.com. This meant that I got to see the whole competition, including the nerve-wracking warm-up sessions, and all without the annoying American commentary.

For the short program, Mao wore a lovely lavender dress with crescent ornaments. I had secretly hoped for a white dress to starkly contrast Yu-Na’s black ‘Danse Macabre’ costume—you know, Moonlight versus Hell Fire or something—but the dress was pretty enough.

What surprised me was how tall and thin Mao looked. She had always been slender, but now her lovely long limbs seemed even more extended—she looked more like a ballet dancer than skater to me.

I was hoping for Mao to go out and remind everyone that “I am the world champion,” but that is not what happened. Just like she had done at the 2007 Worlds and at the 2007 Trophee Eric Bompard, Mao popped the triple loop in her combo jump. She then went on the double the triple lutz, and she got an edge warning (“!”). So much for all the progress she had supposedly made over the summer.

I was definitely disappointed. I had really wanted her to nail her program on the first try the same way that Yu-Na had. In addition, I was somewhat disappointed with the program. I thought the music would be perfect for Mao, but I found the cuts in the music to be a bit jarring, and I wasn’t sure I liked having two spins back-to-back at the end.

But at this point, I wasn’t worried. This was typical Mao behavior. She always struggles in the short program. I simply expected her to skate well in the free skate and win.

***

The next day, Mao came out in an all-black, lacy (even potentially racy) costume with heavy eyeliner and bright red lipstick. Whoa! I thought. This is DEFINITELY an image change!! Oooh, let’s see what this grown-up, vampy Mao can do!

The music started—even today, whenever I hear that ominous waltz beat, my heart starts to beat a little faster—and then Mao set up for her triple axel. This is the make or break moment, I thought.

And she landed it! Oh my god, she landed it! She’s on tonight! I thought. Because in all my experience of watching Mao compete, I’d never seen her have a bad performance after landing the opening triple axel.

But, as they say, there’s a first time for everything, and from that point on, her performance fell apart. The next jump, which I thought would be another triple axel, seemed to be changed into a loop at the last moment, and Mao doubled it. She went on to pop her triple-flip/triple-loop combo again, and then she popped the triple salchow and fell. It was a complete disaster. Mao earned the lowest score of her senior career and finished second to Joannie Rochette of Canada.

I was absolutely devastated. Not just because she lost, but because I had no idea what had happened. I had never seen Mao put on two poor performances back-to-back like that. I thought her training had been going so well. If that were the case--if Mao were doing everything perfectly in practice, then her failure here implied serious mental problems. And those, I knew, were very difficult to overcome.

Even more distressing was the fact that Mao herself looked shocked. And Tarasova was livid. All while they were sitting in the kiss 'n' cry, she seemed to be ranting. Perhaps she isn't the right coach for Mao after all, I worried.

I was so distressed that I couldn’t contain it any longer; after having lurked on the Mao Asada Fan Forum for months, I finally broke my silence and shared my stunned disappointment with the other faithful fans.

But of course, with Mao being Mao, the story doesn't end here...

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 15

2010-02-15T01:41:00.000-05:00

Part 15: 2008-09 season—Challenges and Evolution

During the off-season, Mao said something like, “Now I have to work hard because everyone will be chasing me.” Tarasova said, “To stay at #1, you have to keep evolving.”

So just like in the 2006 off-season, Mao underwent a series of big changes and set several ambitious goals for herself.

First, as I mentioned in the previous post, Tatiana Tarasova became her coach. However, their coaching relationship was rather unusual. Mao wanted to train in Japan, using Nagoya as her home base. However, Tarasova had to stay in Russia most of the time because she had to take care of ill family members. As a result, Mao and Tarasova would only see each other maybe once a month at most—Mao would go to Russia for a week or two, and Tarasova would occasionally come to Japan.

Given that most skaters train with their coaches on a daily basis, this was a highly unconventional arrangement. But I thought it would work out fine, since at the 2008 Worlds, Mao had shown that she could basically train herself. And moreover, seeing Mao and TAT together just made me smile. They seemed so happy together. That’s exactly the kind of coach Mao needs, I thought. Not only someone who loves her and believes in her wholeheartedly, but someone whom she can love back.

Mao and Tatiana Tarasova at Chuukyou University in August 2008

Mao and Tarasova in Russia

(Mao is wearing a Russian team jacket that TAT gave her)

Mao and Tatiana Tarasova training
(At Chuukyou University, August 2008)

Tarasova made two requests upon becoming Mao’s coach—Mao would need to find a full-time Russian/Japanese translator, and she would need to work with an off-ice trainer to build strength. Both requests were easily fulfilled. In the latter case, Weider, one of Mao’s sponsors, supplied her with an expert trainer, Kouhei Makino, and a nutrition specialist, Kokoro Kawanami. In return, they would make Mao’s training into a publicity project, taking videos of her training and posting it on a blog.

At first, Mao was a little skeptical of the new off-ice training regime. (1) She was used to her own training exercises, and she worried that it would take a long time to get used to the new exercises. In addition, trainer Makino had never worked with a figure skater before. But as time went on, Mao began to feel stronger; she felt that her jump landings were more secure, that her stamina was greater, and that the pain/uncomfortable feeling in her lower back/hips had gone away.

***

Mao’s first challenge was her programs themselves. For her short program, she and Lori Nichol selected an orchestral version of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” I thought it would be a perfect song for Mao, just like Chopin’s Nocturne was, but Mao and Lori thought it would be a challenging song that they could only try in this pre-Olympic year. After all, it’s quiet, it has no story, and it doesn’t really build to a climax. Mao would have to sell this program with the beauty of her skating alone. (2)

Mao and Lori Nichol practicing
(At Chuukyou University in Japan, September 2008)

For her long program, Mao chose Khachaturian’s dark “Masquerade Waltz” [“Waltz” from the Masquerade Suite.] One of Mao’s goals for the season was an “image change,” and this heavy, ominous music was definitely unlike anything she had ever skated to before. I really liked the song “Masquerade Waltz,” and I was excited to see what Mao would do with it, though part of me worried if Mao, the gentle angel on ice, could master such sinister-sounding music.

Mao’s next set of challenges involved her jumps.

First, now that the base value of the triple axel had been raised from 7.5 points to 8.2 points, Mao wanted to put TWO triple axels in her long program. If she landed them successfully, it would be the first time a lady had ever performed that feat ever.

Second, Mao was determined to fix the take-off for her lutz so that she would stop receiving edge calls and deductions. By August, Tarasova claimed that Mao could land 7 out of 10 lutzes correctly, which seemed like remarkable progress given the extreme difficulty of retraining a jump Mao had done incorrectly for years. But Mao was a genius jumper, after all.

Third, Mao wanted to add the triple salchow back to her program. It was one of the jumps that she did not particularly like and claimed she was not good at, so she had left it out of her programs since she became a senior. However, there was talk that the ISU would institute a bonus if a skater performed all 5 triple jumps (toe loop, salchow, loop, flip, and lutz) successfully—and Mao did not want to miss out on that.

Finally, since the number of required spins in the long program was lowered from four to three, Tarasova used the approximately 15 extra seconds to create an extremely challenging and tiring 45-second long step sequence. With two triple axels and an extra-long step sequence, Mao would basically be tackling a men’s level program.

Mao was scheduled to make her Grand Prix debut at the the 4th competition of the season, in mid-November, and I could not wait to see how 18-year old Mao had changed.

Endnotes
1) See post #6 on this page.
2) See pg 149 in 浅田真央、17歳 [Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen].

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 14

2010-02-15T01:17:00.000-05:00

Part 14: 2007-08 season—Celebrate good times, come on!

After Worlds, I went skating crazy. I started browsing the online forums, I read all the news on Mao, and I went on YouTube to watch all the performances, interviews, fluff pieces, etc that I had missed. And there was a ton to watch. Mao became even more of a star in Japan than before, and there were so many commercials and talk shows and interviews to see.

Here are some of my favorite clips that I found.

Mao almost setting off a fire alarm
(At the 2008 Japan Super Challenge ice show)

Mao on "BISTRO SMAP" (April 2008)

(For the rest of the show, please see the links on this page.)

Even more crazy (or foolish), I decided that I too wanted to learn how to skate. That way I would be able to understand exactly that Mao was doing, and I would understand what exactly this whole ‘outside edge’/ ‘inside edge’ stuff was about. Or so I thought. ^_^;;

***

About one month after Worlds, Mao participated in the annual Japan Open, in single skaters compete in teams of 4, and their aggregate score determines the winning team. Mao Asada was last to skate, and when she did her free program this time, she nailed the opening triple axel.

2008 Japan Open
“Fantaisie-Impromptu” by Frederic Chopin

But what I thought was even more impressive was that she had replaced the triple lutz with a salchow. She doubled the jump, but nonetheless the attempted it for the first time since she became a senior. The reason for the switch? As Jack Gallagher wrote in his article, Mao said that she wanted to fix her take-off for the lutz. So in the meantime, while she was working on it, she removed it from her program.

Barely a month had passed since she had won her World title, she had been extremely busy with all kinds of interviews and media appearances, and yet Mao Asada was already working hard to become an even better skater. Now that is a true champion, I thought.

***

In June 2008, Mao announced that Tatiana Tarasova would be her new coach. At that point in time, I didn’t know that Tarasova almost became her coach before Worlds, but it was no surprise to me that she picked TAT. (More on this later.)

Very soon after that, we got to see Mao’s brand-new exhibition program, which was choreographed by Tarasova.

2008 Dreams on Ice
“Por Una Cabeza” by Carlos Gardel / “Payadora” by Julian Plaza

(Click on the YouTube link to watch in HD!)

Just like with her 2007-08 season short program, this program showed a new, mature side of Mao. Lovely!

Then, in July, it was time for THE ICE. Given Mao’s status as World champion, it became a huge production. First, there was a sightseeing tour, where Mao and Mai took a number of North American skaters all around Nagoya.

Then, in the show, Mao and Mai performed their first proper pair number together.

2008 THE ICE (July 2008)
“Dreamgirls”

And as part of the finale, Mao Asada and Jeff Buttle, the 2008 World champs, would skate together to Disney’s “Enchanted.” What happened was priceless. You just have to watch it yourself.

2008 THE ICE
“True Love’s Kiss” from Disney’s “Enchanted”

Finally, Mao made another dream come true—that of Miku Okubo, an 8-year old girl with a prosthetic arm who dreamed of being a violinist.

As part of the 24-hour TV special, Mao skated to Miku playing “Over the rainbow.”

Mao Asada and Miku Okubo
"Over the Rainbow"

For the full TV special, please see here.

I felt like I had never seen Mao skate so expressively. Mao has used this music for both a short program and an exhibition, and in many ways, I think it fits her perfectly.

"Somewhere over the rainbow...skies are blue...and the dreams that you dared to dream, really do come true..."

Mao Asada makes me believe that dreams really do come true.

***

Addendum
1) Mao actually had one other exhibition program to “Sing, Sing, Sing,” choreographed by Lori Nichol. But she never skated it after the season started. Here it is at THE ICE.

2) Here's Mao on another silly talk show from April 2008. Download/watch it here. (From JapanSkates).

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 13

2010-02-14T15:40:00.000-05:00

Part 13: 2007-08 season—Another Miracle from Mao

As I mentioned in an earlier post, at this point of time, I had lost some interest in Mao, and skating in general, because I didn’t want to see gold slip through her fingers again.

So I might have known that Mao had won Nationals again and the Four Continents Championship, but I don’t recall watching the performances. In fact, I’m pretty sure I forgot to tape 4CC altogether. And I think I might have found out that Mao had parted ways with Artunian, but that probably just made me more worried about her prospects for World gold.

In addition, I had found another skater to root for—Mirai Nagasu. She reminded me so much of Mao—she was cute and bubbly, she was very flexible, and she came out of nowhere and won the 2008 US National Championships, much like how Mao had won the 2005 Grand Prix Final. I didn’t think she was as good as Mao was at 14, but still, she was someone I could cheer for and pin my hopes on if Mao continued to struggle.

So going into 2008 Worlds, I wasn’t very excited at all. I didn’t follow the news at all, and I didn’t even bother to watch the competition (which I had taped) until a week after Worlds finished.

But when I finally watched the short program, Mao Asada showed me that all my doubts and despair had been unwarranted.

2008 World Championships SP (age 17) (ESPN commentary)
“Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra” by Nigel Hess

For an HD version, please click here.

Up until that point, I had never been that impressed by Mao’s short program, probably because I hadn’t seen her skate it cleanly, and I didn’t particularly care for her costume. It wasn’t like “Nocturne,” which I adored from the very first time Mao skated it.

But here, in that elegant costume, Mao Asada was pure beauty in motion. The combination of the heartbreakingly beautiful song and Mao’s effortless, lyrical skating was absolutely stunning. Especially the step sequence—those twizzles where she throws her arm up in the air and pulls it down—wow!—and that arabesque attitude right on the beat—gorgeous!

Here I felt that she had really matured from an adorable jumping bean into a true ballerina on ice. Peggy Fleming, one of the ESPN commentators, remarked, “She just takes my breath away.” Even today, this remains one of the programs that I go back and watch over and over again.

After the short, Mao was in second place behind Carolina Kostner by 0.18 points. The reason—Mao didn’t hold her spiral and her spin positions long enough, so she lost some levels (and some points). Yu-Na Kim, who was still recovering from her injury, had fallen on her triple lutz and ended up in 5th place, while Miki Ando, the defending champion, was in 8th place.

***

So now I was pretty excited. If she could only hold it together, then she had a good shot at gold!

In the preview for the free program, Peggy Fleming said "I love Mao Asada...She is on a plane of existence these days that is all by herself in the skating world, both technically, musically, artistically [sic].” I couldn’t agree more.

2008 Worlds FS fluff on ESPN

Then the competition began. Miki Ando, who was struggling with an injury, withdrew from the competition mid-program after falling on her opening jump passes. Carolina Kostner, the leader after the short, put on a sloppy performance, but held onto the lead with three skaters left.

Yu-Na Kim skated next, and she put on a nearly clean performance—her only mistake was a popped triple lutz. She outscored Kostner, but given the ~5 point difference in the short, it was not enough to overtake her for the overall lead.

Then it was Mao Asada’s turn. My heart was thudding in my chest. “Oh no, she looks nervous,” I thought. She set up for her triple axel, and--Oh my god! She slipped before the take-off and nearly crashed into the boards! Oh no! I thought. There goes her shot at the gold medal!

She looked a little shaken as she skated around the rink, but she set up for her triple-flip/triple-toe loop combination—and landed it beautifully! Probably the best I’d ever seen her do. Then, from that point on, she proceeded to reel off jump after jump in her typical lovely, effortless form. By the time she finished her final spin, it was tough to believe that she had fallen spectacularly at the beginning. Wow, simply, wow.

2008 World Championship FS
“Fantaisie-Impromptu” by Frederic Chopin
See ESPN version here.
See CBC version here.
See Japanese version here.
(I find it gratifying to hear all the commentators be as impressed as I was.)

I was biting my nails as I waited for the score. Would it be enough? And then it was!! Mao Asada moved into first place!! She did it! Despite the horrific fall before the triple axel, she picked herself up and skated cleanly. Because that was what she had learned to do this season: put a mistake on the triple axel behind her and keep on fighting.

That left one skater: Yukari Nakano of Japan, who was in 4th place after the short. She also opened with a triple axel, but unlike Mao, she landed it. And then, as she went through her program landing jump after jump, my heart began to sank. Oh no! Not again!, I thought. This is just like last year when Miki Ando skated cleanly after Mao and stole her title!!

While she waited for the scores, my heart was racing again. Would she score high enough to overtake Mao? In the end, the answer was no. In fact, she didn’t even score high enough to land on the podium.

Mao Asada had done the unthinkable—she had fallen before her triple axel, but she picked herself up and skated away with her first World title. And all of this without a coach. THAT is Miracle Mao for you.

Sportswriters around the world echoed my amazement:
“Mao a shining example of why sports still matter,” Jack Gallagher wrote, while Simon Barnes of the UK called it “Mao Asada’s golden moment of pure courage.”

***

I was simply ecstatic. In that moment, I went from simply a casual fan to an uber fan. But it wasn’t really because of Mao’s long program performance, even though it was amazing.

You see, I had watched plenty of amazing, emotional Mao comebacks before—at 2007 Worlds and the 2007 Grand Prix final, for example. And honestly, I felt that falling before the triple axel paradoxically helped Mao. Remember I had thought she looked so nervous at the beginning of the long program? If instead she had launched the jump and then fallen on the landing, like at 2007 TEB, I bet that she would have skated in a cautious and uninspired fashion through the rest of the program.

But precisely because she fell in such an unexpected way, precisely because she received a huge shock, I think the pressure and nervousness immediately dissipated and she was able to skate brilliantly and expressively afterwards.

So what was it about Worlds that made me an uber fan? I think it was simply the fact that she had won. No matter what happened after that point, her name would go down in history books as a World champion. She had finally made good on her potential. And I felt validated as a fan. I had picked her as a skater with tremendous potential when she was 15, I had tracked her career for over two years, and I had believed that she was the best in the World. And now she was. (Okay, sure, she hadn’t won an Olympics, but neither has Michelle Kwan.)

I was even more excited when I looked at the protocols. Despite completely missing her opening jump, which knocked 7.5 points off of her base value, and getting an underrotation call on her triple-flip/triple-loop combo, she finished only 2 points behind Yu-Na Kim in the long program. And more importantly, she had received higher PCS than Yu-Na. It was like a complete inversion of the result of the 2007 Grand Prix Final. To me, it seemed like the judges were saying, “Mao Asada IS better.”

The mixture of pride and joy nearly moved me to tears as I watched Mao Asada’s exhibition.

2008 World Championships Exhibition
“So Deep is the Night” based on Chopin’s “Tristesse”

As Dick Button had said, “She is a soufflé on ice.” Simply delicious!

Addendum
1) See awesome pics from the 2008 Worlds banquet here.

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 12

2010-02-14T14:51:00.000-05:00

Part 12: 2007-08 season—Crisis

In truth, the smooth sailing at Four Continents belied undercurrents of uncertainty. Anyone watching the competition would have noticed that Mao Asada’s coach, Rafael Artunian, was not there. Soon after that, they ended their coaching relationship permanently.

In Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen, Mao’s mother tells their side of the story. According to her, the original plan was for Mao to stay in Japan to practice after Nationals. Rafael was supposed to join her in Japan, and together they would travel from Japan to Korea. They had made a promise. However, Rafael never came to Japan. And he refused to go to Four Continents, saying, “I haven’t seen her practice for a while, so I cannot take responsibility.”

About the incident, Mao said, “I didn’t receive any contact from him. So when I heard [he wasn’t coming], I was shocked. I thought, ‘Why won’t he come here for me?’ I felt that very strongly. Because I had been waiting for Rafael to come.
“Around New Year’s, my hip hurt a little bit and my practices weren’t going well. And then, I felt kind of worried about Four Continents or something; I can’t really say.
“The reason I went to America was because I couldn’t practice satisfactorily in Japan. I was glad that I was able to practice a lot abroad, and my lifestyle was unique. I thought it was a fulfilling two years.” (1)

But in May 2007, they had opened a new rink exclusively for figure skaters at Chuukyou University, near Mao’s hometown, thus eliminating her need to go abroad to get private ice time. And now that her and her mother’s trust in Rafael had been shattered, they decided to end the coaching relationship.

The Aurora rink at Chuukyou University

But that left Mao with no coach and just over one month until Worlds. Mao, never one to complain, said that not having a coach didn’t bother her. She didn’t want to use the absence of a coach as an excuse. But the unusual situation was certainly taking a mental toll on Mao, and the JSF scrambled to find a new coach for Mao. They sent a frantic offer letter to Tatiana Tarasova, and amazingly, she agreed to accept. She said, “I choreographed her program this season, and I also watched her practice over the summer. If Mao says she absolutely wants me, then I will accept. In return, I want her to come to Russia two weeks before the World Championships. If that doesn’t happen, then I won’t be able to train her.” (2)

For a moment, it seemed like Mao’s problems had been solved.

But the day after she returned home from Korea, the real crisis arrived. Mao was practicing her triple-flip/triple-loop combination, when she made an awkward movement with her left foot and heard a popping sound.

An MRI revealed that she had sprained her ankle.

***

For awhile, Mao was in shock. It didn’t hurt much, but she couldn’t skate at all. "What if it doesn’t heal in time for Worlds?!", she worried.

For one week, all she could do was train in the gym. In the second week, she was able to move on the ice with her ankle heavily taped. In the third week, she tried some single jumps. But she found that she had a hard time feeling the ice with her ankle taped. On the other hand, if she removed the taping, her ankle wasn’t stable.

All during this time, Mao Asada trained by herself, with only a few JSF members supervising her. She couldn’t go to Russia in this condition, so the coaching agreement with Tarasova was canceled.

Finally, in the week before Worlds, Mao was able to do triple jumps again. Her ankle had healed just in time. And Mao found that surprisingly, she was no longer nervous. After having to deal with the injury, after feeling despair that she might not be able to compete, she was elated to find that she could skate again and felt a strong desire to go out and win Worlds.

She trained in Japan until the very last minute, and arrived in Göteborg, Sweden just two days before the start of the competition. She was simply glad that she had made it.

When she arrived, the media asked her about her skating condition. It wasn’t quite the truth, but she said that “it's the same as usual; it's good.” (3)

Press conference for 2008 Worlds

Just like with her broken finger before 2006 Nationals, Mao never said a word about her injury. No one outside of the JSF had any idea that she had been unable to practice fully for three weeks.

But Mao Asada doesn’t like to lie and she doesn’t make excuses. So she resolved to make her statement—“My condition is good”—into the truth.

Endnotes
1) See pgs 91-92 in 浅田真央、１７歳 [Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen].
2) Ibid, pg 94.
3) Ibid, pg 104-105.

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 11

2010-02-11T23:15:00.001-05:00

Part 11: 2007-08 season—Sunshine after the storm

After the 2007 Grand Prix Final, I may have had thoughts of doubt and despair, but Mao Asada had more important things to worry about—Aero’s new puppies! Yes, during the Grand Prix Final, Mao’s beloved toy poodle, Aero, gave birth to three puppies. (See pictures in Message from Mao No. 29 on this page.) Mao and Mai kept two of them, and later named them Tiara (ティアラ) and Komachi (小町).

When Mao returned to Japan for the 2007 Japan National Championships, she not only got to see Aero’s new puppies, but a lot of people in the skating world like Midori Ito that she hadn’t seen in months.

At Nationals, Mao finally overcame her mental block and skated her short program beautifully at the 2008 Japan National Championships.

2008 Japan National Championships SP
“Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra” by Nigel Hess

(Please click on the YouTube link to watch in HD! I recommend it!)

The costume she wore—she actually borrowed it from Mai—remains my very favorite.

Although she popped the triple axel in the long program, she did enough to win her second straight National title.

Mao Asada with Japan National Championships trophy

(Looks heavy!)

I think the success in the short program marked a turning point in Mao’s season. She had been so excited about her new short program—her chance to reveal a new side of Mao—and she had shed bitter tears when she couldn’t execute it perfectly. But now, she had finally succeeded. She had gained so much confidence in her program that she even performed it as her exhibition piece in the gala after Nationals, the annual “Medalists on Ice.”

2008 Medalists on Ice (with live orchestra)
“Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra” by Nigel Hess

(Click on the YouTube link to watch in HD!)

***

Mao’s next stop was the Four Continents Championship in Goyang, Korea. Surprisingly, Yu-Na Kim would not be there. Yes, just like in the previous season, Yu-Na Kim suffered an injury right around the beginning of the year, and she would not be able to compete in her home country.

Given that Mao was entering “enemy territory,” she was surprised to receive such a warm welcome. At this point in time, the Mao/Yu-Na rivalry was not so tense, and the Korean skating fans greeted Mao with their boisterous cheers.

The new year also brought Mao new costumes: a long-sleeved silver costume with a lavender skirt and a V-neck cut for her short program, and a gorgeous rose pink dress for her long program.

Mao’s new SP costume

In the short program, Mao stepped out of her triple lutz, and her triple loop in her combo was downgraded, but she held onto first place.

Mao in the kiss ‘n’ cry after the SP

In the long program, Mao nailed her opening triple axel, racking up GOEs of +1.86 points; making that single jump worth 9.36 points, or nearly the same as the base value of a triple-flip/triple toe loop combo (9.5 points). She skated the rest of her program cleanly, and though she received an underrotation call on the triple toe loop in her triple-flip/triple-toe loop combo and an edge call on her lutz, she managed to score 132.31, very close to her personal best.

Mao's new FS costume

2008 Four Continents Championship FS
"Fantasie-Impromptu" by Frederic Chopin

Mao finished the competition with nearly a 14-point lead over the second place finisher, Joannie Rochette of Canada.

2008 Four Continents Championship podium: Joannie Rochette (silver), Mao Asada (gold), Miki Ando (bronze)

But her time in Korea was not over yet. At the exhibition gala, Mao delivered a stirring performance of her exhibition number, “So Deep is the Night,” based on Frederic Chopin’s Etude Op. 10 No. 3 in E major, “Tristesse.”

2008 Four Continents Championship Exhibition
“So Deep is the Night,” based on Chopin’s “Tristesse”

(Click on the YouTube link to watch in HD!)

This number remains one of my favorite. Effortlessly elegant, heartbreakingly beautiful, simply sublime. I could not help but feel moved.

Mao was also interviewed for Korean TV, charming the reporter with her bright smile and even giving Korean fans a chance to hear her sing.

Mao Asada on Korean TV

And of course, there was tons of yummy Korean food to be eaten!

With her short program problems seemingly behind her and the triple axel in great shape, Mao looked ready to conquer the world. No one would have guessed that crisis was about to befall her…

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 10

2010-02-10T22:41:00.000-05:00

Part 10: 2007-08 season—Some disillusionment and despair (from me)

In December 2007, Mao Asada headed to Torino, home of the 2006 Olympics, for her third straight Grand Prix Final. And it started off disastrously. The triple-triple combo that had been a stumbling block for her—she nearly fell on it. Then, during the approach for her triple lutz, she slid and lost her timing, so she omitted the jump altogether. Only two jump passes completed and one with a near-fall. It was no surprise that she found herself in last place (6th) after the short program.

2007 Grand Prix Final SP (age 17) (ESPN commentary)
“Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra” by Nigel Hess

(For a higher-quality widescreen version, please click here.)

Mao ended up a little more than 5.5 points behind the leader, Yu-Na Kim, and just under 3 points behind 2nd place, Caroline Zhang of the US.

Well, you can guess what happened the next day. No stranger to "coming from behind," Mao Asada pulled out all the stops and skated her heart out in the free program the next day.

2007 Grand Prix Final FS (ESPN commentary)
“Fantasie-Impromptu” by Frederic Chopin

(For a higher-quality widescreen version, see here.)

Not only did she land the triple axel, but she also successfully landed two triple-triple combinations: the triple-flip/triple-loop, her usual combo, and the triple-flip/triple-toe loop combo. And the way that she ends the program with a double axel before the final note--who else can do that?!

Mao received 132.55 points for her free skate, very near her record score from the 2007 World Championships. And just like at 2007 Worlds, she burst into tears at the end—tears of relief, tears of satisfaction, tears that said, “I did it!”

Once again, Mao "met the moment," as Tracy Wilson said. Wow. And the tears--that was just part of why I love Mao: because she wears her heart on her sleeve. You can't help but go through the emotional highs and lows with her. And oh, how it warmed my heart to see Rafael Artunian hugging and carrying the crying/smiling Mao off the rink!

I was not the only one who was excited. Tatiana Tarasova was there watching as a commentator for Russian TV, and she exclaimed, “She has given her all!.. has given her all... Has proved to herself that she can!..” (Read the full translation of her commentary here. Thanks to summervie from the Mao Asada fan forum!)

Rafael Artunian, Tatiana Tarasova, and Mao Asada at 2007 GPF

As the rest of the field posted scores well below Mao’s, I began to think, Mao might actually have a chance to win this! How amazing would that be? To go from last to first?

The leader after the short program, Yu-Na Kim, was the final skater to take the ice. She fell on her second jump, a triple loop, but skated the rest of her program cleanly. Her score? 132.21, a mere 0.34 points behind a completely clean Mao Asada. She easily clinched her second straight Grand Prix Final gold.

2007 Grand Prix Final podium: Mao Asada (silver), Yu-Na Kim (gold), Carolina Kostner (bronze)

I was stunned. “How can that be?”, I thought. So I looked at the protocols. Although Mao Asada had gotten full credit for all her jumps (nothing was marked underrotated), she lost quite a few points through negative GOEs on her jumping passes, especially on the edge-called triple lutz. In contrast, Yu-Na Kim received positive GOEs across all of her elements (except the triple loop that she fell on). In addition, Yu-Na received higher PCS than Mao.

And then, I thought, “If that’s how they’re going to judge it—if Mao Asada can skate her heart out and land all her jumps, while Yu-Na Kim falls, and their scores end up practically the same—if that's how it's going to be, then I don’t think I want to watch skating anymore.”

***

Even I, the ardent Mao fan, had to admit that Yu-Na Kim was a very good skater. Even I could concede that Yu-Na Kim had a polish to her programs that Mao Asada was lacking. Every element was done cleanly; she didn’t make edge errors nor underrotate. She sold every jump, every spin, every spiral, maintaining the performance aspect throughout her whole program. And although her facial expressions seemed very affected, very artificial, to me, at least she made an effort. Mao, on the other hand, seemed like she sometimes forgot about performing. Sometimes it seemed like she was only concentrating on the jump she had to do next. Moreover, there was the issue of mental toughness—Yu-Na Kim seemed to handle the pressure very well, whereas Mao couldn’t get her head together for the short program.

But that didn’t mean that I liked Yu-Na Kim. No, not at all. I could objectively see that she was good, but I did not think she was better than Mao. On a more subjective level, I simply did not enjoy watching Yu-Na’s skating. This might be in part due to my pro-Mao bias, but recently I think it has something to do with my ballet background as well. Every spiral of Yu-Na's that lacked flexibility, every less-than-graceful line made me wish I were watching Mao. I felt the same way about many of the other less flexible and less graceful ladies, but I did not care as much because they were not even close to rivaling Mao.

***

So at this point in this time, I felt disillusioned. I looked at the scores and thought, “gee, maybe Mao Asada can’t do it. She can't seem to get her head together for the short program, and the judges seem to like Yu-Na. She’s probably going to win Worlds at this rate.”

And this is when my interest in skating waned. Because I remembered how painful it was to watch Mao Asada come so close to gold at the 2007 Worlds and end up with silver, and I did not want to see that again.

Because like Tarasova, I believed that Mao was the "real star," the "marvelous girl" who "would achieve everything."

2007 Grand Prix Final banquet
Daisuke Takahashi, Mao Asada, Yukari Nakano

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 9

2010-02-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

Part 9: 2007-08 season—Signs of vulnerability

Mao Asada’s 2007-08 competitive season had a fiery start—literally. In late October, Mao awoke to find the power out. Soon after they were told to evacuate Lake Arrowhead immediately to escape the wildfires ravaging Northern California. She and Rafael ended up training in Toronto for a few days before heading to Quebec City for the 2007 Skate Canada. Of course, Mao never complained, never said that the situation upset her.

But at the competition, she was not able to show the world a new improved Mao in her challenging, maturing short program. She almost fell on the triple loop in her opening triple-flip/triple-loop combination jump and found herself in third place after the short.

The next day she rallied and skated a clean long program capped off with a bright smile.

2007 Skate Canada FS (age 17)
“Fantasie-Impromptu” by Frederic Chopin

She landed the triple-flip/triple-loop combo that had given her trouble in the short (though it was judged underrotated), but she did not attempt her signature triple axel. It was the first time she had purposely omitted the triple axel since becoming a senior. Still, it did not prevent her from scoring her first victory of the season.

***

At this point in time, I was still a casual fan. I knew that Mao had worked with Tarasova over the summer, but I didn’t really know who she was. I also had no idea about the wildfire incident. I thought Mao’s performance in the short program was a bit disappointing, but it was just the first competition of the season, after all. I thought it was a little more intriguing that Mao left out the triple axel.

Here, for the first time, I was introduced to the concept of “edge calls.” Starting with the 2007-08 season, the technical specialist began checking to see if the lutz and flip were launched from the correct edge: the lutz from the outside edge and the flip from the inside edge. If the lutz takeoff was from an inside edge, an error known as a “flutz,” the tech specialist would mark it with an “e,” and the judges were required to give negative GOE’s.

All of a sudden, Mao, a notorious flutzer, started getting receiving substantially negative GOE’s for a jump that used to garner her positive GOE’s. She was not the only one; Miki Ando also lost points for launching her flip from an outside edge (an error known as a “lip”). At this point, however, I don’t think I fully understood the judging system nor did I realize the full magnitude of the deduction.

***

At Mao’s second Grand Prix event of the season, the Trophee Eric Bompard, her “curse of the short program” struck again, and she popped the triple loop in her triple-flip/triple-loop combination. It was the same mistake she had made at the 2007 World Championships. She ended up first after the short program, but she cried for 30 minutes after the program.

The American ESPN commentators couldn’t understand why she was crying—after all, she was in first place—but I knew. It was because once again, Mao messed up the combo that she could do perfectly in practice. Because for Mao, it’s not just about winning or being in first place; it’s about doing everything that she is capable of.

The next day, Mao easily won the long program and the competition despite falling on her opening triple axel and receiving a time violation deduction.

2007 Trophee Eric Bompard FS (age 17)
“Fantasie-Impromptu” by Frederic Chopin

It was not her best skate by any means, but one aspect of her performance showed me she had matured as a skater: even though she fell on the triple axel, she picked herself up and skated the rest of her program cleanly. In the previous season, if Mao messed up the triple axel, she would let it affect the rest of her program; she would kind of give up. That had happened at the 2006 Skate America and the 2006 Grand Prix Final. But here she kept fighting; she didn’t let the fall faze her. She was no longer letting the triple axel dictate the rest of her program, which I thought was an important development.

2007 Trophee Eric Bompard podium: Kimmie Meissner (silver), Mao Asada (gold), Ashley Wagner (bronze)

On paper, the 2007 Grand Prix season was her best yet—she won both competitions she entered—but this fact obscures the rather shaky performances she delivered, especially in the short program. She may have won two GP gold medals, but she also showed some signs of vulnerability.

Addenda
1) Mao actually gave the first performance of her short program at the 2007 International Counter Match held in Japan. Watch it here:

It’s interesting to watch her program in its original form; some aspects of the choreography were modified by the time she performed it at Worlds in 2008.

Mao Asada’s journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 8

2010-02-09T23:13:00.000-05:00

Part 8: 2007 Off-season—Sharing her smile with the globe

Mao Asada was quite the jet-setter in summer 2007.

She skated in “Stars on Ice” in Canada, performing her lovely “Nocturne” SP program and giving the fans a glimpse of a skater who would probably return three years later to battle for Olympic gold. Why "Nocturne" instead of her "Carmen" exhibition? Because she wanted to erase the mistake on her triple-triple combo at 2007 Worlds, and put on one last clean performance.

Stars on Ice (in Vancouver) - April 2007

(click on the YouTube link to watch in HD)

While there, she and Mai took a sightseeing tour of Vancouver with Japanese TV personality and devoted skating fan Shuuzou Matsuoka. Not only did they get to see the sights, sample the local cuisine, and shop, but Mao also got her first chance to skate at the Pacific Coliseum, which would be the rink for the 2010 Olympics.

Mao and Mai Asada in Vancouver

Mao also skated in Italy as part of the "Japan on Ice" tour, providing the thrill of a lifetime for a few young fans and skater hopefuls.

Mao Asada in Italy

Then there was also “THE ICE” back in Nagoya, an ice show produced by Olympus, one of Mao and Mai’s major sponsors. Here, Mao and Mai put on a very short pair program, much to the delight of the crowd and themselves. And Mao and Mirai Nagasu had an adorable joint interview in the middle of the show (see post here).

Mai and Mao skating in the 2007 ‘THE ICE’

***

Late in the summer of 2007, Mao Asada went to work with the coach who would have a major impact on her future skating career—the so-called “Champion maker,” Tatiana Tarasova. She Mai, Mao and their mother traveled in Moscow, where Tarasova greeted Mao warmly. Mao recalls, "when we first met, she hugged me tight and buried me in her chest. It was soft, and it felt really good. Her perfume also smelled good." (1)

And in many ways, it was “love at first hug.” At first Mao was a little in awe of Tarasova, and perhpas a little intimidated, but she soon realized that while Tarasova might be strict in practice, she was warm and loving off the ice.

After the very first listen, Mao chose Nigel Hess’ “Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra,” as her short program music. During the choreography session, Tarasova devised ever-the-more complex choreography for constantly asking, “Can you do this step, Mao? What about that?”, and delighted in Mao’s mastery of even the most devilish twist and turns. She said, "That's wonderful. You can do anything, can't you? And beautifully too. I never imagined that your skill level would be this high!" (2)

For her part, Mao eagerly embraced the challenges Tarasova created for her; she enjoyed testing her limits and looked forward to showing the world a new, improved, more mature Mao.

While in Moscow, Mao also worked with a ballet teacher to help improve her artistry. Finally, Tarasova gave Mao unusual instructions for how to improve her expression: “Fall in love,” she said.

As they parted ways at the end of the training camp, Tarasova remarked, “if anything ever happens in Japan, come to Russia. You can compete as a Russian skater.” (3)

She may have been joking, but her words do reflect her true feelings for Mao. She said, "Mao's physical ability is amazing. On top of that, she loves to practice and is diligent. Up until now, I have raised a lot of skaters, but I've never seen a skater like her." (4)

***

For her long program, Mao faced a bit of a dilemma. Despite her record-setting success with ‘Czardas’ at the 2007 World Championships, Mao reflected that it was the program that never really fit her, that she never quite liked. (5) She considered reusing it in the 2007-08 season to give herself a chance to really master the program, but in the end, she and choreographer Lori Nichol chose Chopin’s “Fantasie-Impromptu” for her long program.

With her programs choreographed, Mao returned to Lake Arrowhead. All that was left was to practice, practice, practice before the start of the season, when Mao would have her first chance to show off her new complex and beautiful short program.

Endnotes
1) See pg 14 in 浅田真央、１７歳 [Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen].
2) See pg 19 in Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen.
3) See pg 18 in Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen.
4) See pg 22 in Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen.
5) See pg 24 in Mao Asada, Miracle Seventeen.

Mao Asada's journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 7

2010-02-03T22:42:00.003-05:00

Part 7: 2007 Off-season—The way they were

Immediately after the 2007 World Championships in Tokyo, Mao declared, “I will show Yu-Na around!”, and the two 16-year-olds set off to explore the city. That day, they were not rivals, but simply two teenage girls doing what teenage girls do in Tokyo: shopping, eating and having fun.

Today, things may be very different (and we’ll get to that point eventually), but back in 2007 and before that, Mao Asada and Yu-Na Kim were friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, happy to see the other.

Mao and Yu-Na

More pictures
(2006 Jr. Worlds and off-season)

The pictures at the bottom of this reel are from Yu-Na Kim’s blog/journal. (It’s either the summer of 2006 or 2007; I’m not sure which.)

My Korean is not nearly as good as my Japanese, but here’s my translation of what Yu-Na says (with much help from Google translate).

First entry:
At last I finally met them.
Mao and Mai, who are staying in the same dorm.
I did expect it, but to meet like this!
What a coincidence!
We talked and took pictures and I was very happy to see them.
They said they are going to Portugal in 3 days.

Second entry:
Last night, we made too much curry, so
I took it and gave it to Mao. As a bonus, kimchi pancakes too.
(She was more excited about the pancakes than the curry.)
In return, I received corn and drinks.

How sweet is that? Happily running into each other, happily talking, happily trading food.

But no longer.

Following Mao’s story, I think what saddens me the most is the deterioration of this friendship. Today, these young girls, these would-be friends, are national idols. The sensationalistic media and rabid ‘fans’ have inflated their rivalry into a battle for national glory, part of the acrimonious conflict between Japan and Korea that has run centuries long.

How can they be friends when the media and extremist ubers viciously slander the other? How can they be friends when Mao Asada must be protected by bodyguards the moment she steps into Korea?

And yet, can there be anyone who understands the other better? Who other than Mao Asada can understand the extreme pressure that Yu-Na Kim faces? Who other than Yu-Na Kim can understand the stress of constant media scrutiny?

Not only are they both celebrity athletes in their own countries, but they are also the same age. They are born just 20 days apart. They advanced from novice to junior skaters together, they debuted at Senior Worlds together, and they graduated from high school and started college together. So much in common, yet bitter history keeps them apart.

I often wonder if in the future, say 15 years from now, they’ll be able to meet as friends. Maybe enough time will have passed that they can reminisce fondly about their competition days. Maybe then, they could hang out together, just as they did one spring day in 2007.

But sometimes I think, maybe not. Because they have sacrificed their childhoods and teenage years for the same dream: Olympic gold. So perhaps, if they meet 15 years from now, it will not be a happy happenstance. Perhaps one will feel uncomfortably guilty thinking, “I destroyed your dream,” while the other will bitterly recall, “I lost.”

***

But I am getting too far ahead of myself here. (And rather melodramatic, as is my wont!)

After 2007 Worlds, Mao and Yu-Na also had a joint interview special on Japanese TV. Very friendly, very cute.

You can see it here with Korean subtitles.

One day I might try to translate all of it. But the part that I remember the most is the true/false quiz that they do at the end. Here I will recap/translate what is said.

For each of these 10 statements, Mao and Yu-Na have to hold up a paddle that has an O (True) on one side and an X (False) on the other. After the quiz, they discuss some of the answers.

(This is prefaced by Mao laughingly declaring, "I don't like these kind of quizzes!")

1) I like Yakiniku the best
Mao: True
Yu-Na: False
(Later Yu-Na explains that she likes bread better than yakiniku.)

2) I’m still growing taller
[much hesitation from both]
Mao: False
Yu-Na: True
[And yet, today, Mao is still growing…]
Here they stand side-by-side and compare how tall they are, how long their arms are—yup, they were just about the same height, same length arms and legs. ;)

3) I have confidence that I’ll smile in my final pose
[Mao laughing]
Both: True

4) Skating is good, but I also want to fall in love
Both: True
[both smile]
They ask her what their "type" of guy is. Mao says her type is an interesting and cool person. Yu-Na says her type is “someone who has a manly look and personality, and like Mao, I like interesting guys.”

5) Truthfully, I’m afraid of my mother
Mao: True
Yu-Na: False

6) Even if I were reborn, I’d want to be a skater
Mao: True
Yu-Na: False

7) I’ve gotten dizzy from spinning
Mao: True
Yu-Na: False

8) I hate to lose
Mao: True
Yu-Na: False

9) At the Vancouver Olympics, the one who will win the gold medal is me.
[both laughing embarrassedly]
Mao: True
Yu-Na: False

They ask Yu-Na why she answered ‘False.’ She says, “There’s still a long time until the Vancouver Olympics, and I think no one knows what will happen. But Mao is really trying hard, so I think she’ll put out a good result. But I don’t really know what will happen.”

Then they ask Mao why she said ‘True.’ She says, “From when I was a child, it has been my dream. But I think it would be good if we can both try our best.”

10) If I win the gold medal, I want to return to being a normal girl
[both hesitate]
Both: True

***

Out of all the questions, I think the one that strikes me the most from this quiz is #6. "Even if I were reborn, I'd still want to be a skater," Mao affirms. Yu-Na, on the other hand, disagrees.

Perhaps things have changed dramatically since that interview, maybe now that Yu-Na has tasted World champion success and grown to enjoy skating, she would say she would want to be reborn as a skater too. I don't know.

I do know, however, that Mao Asada truly loves to skate. She has always loved to skate. And she probably will go on loving skating for the rest of her life. So much so, that even if she were reborn, she'd still wish to be a skater.

And that is part of the reason why I am a Mao fan. Because when she's skating at her best, you can feel how much she loves it.

As for their predictions for the Vancouver Olympics...Well, so much has changed since 2007. But I believe, and I hope Mao believes, that they will be correct! ^_^

2010 Four Continents Championship: Making "Bells" ring true in her soul

2010-02-01T01:19:00.000-05:00

Once again, I finish watch the Four Continents Championship feeling elated. But not before feeling terribly worried, and then terribly depressed, first.

At first, everything seemed to be going great. Mao was coming off an encouraging, clean skates win at Nationals. She was all-smiles at the airport in Korea, despite being mobbed by the media. And in practice, her condition seemed to be very good—hitting 14 out of 17 triple axels.

But there were several potentially stressful things happening behind the scenes. First of all, Mao’s coach, Tatiana Tarasova, was unable to come to the competition because she had been hospitalized. Tarasova, whom we like to call TAT, suffers from high blood pressure and heart problems, and after a sudden rise in her blood pressure after the European Championships, she was admitted to the hospital. Mao said she had really hoped TAT would come, so that it would be like a simulation for the Olympics, but she heard that TAT was very sick, so there’s nothing that could be done. She vowed to “do a performance that makes Sensei [teacher] happy.” And I figured that TAT’s absence would have little influence on Mao; after all, she was not there when Mao received her personal best total score at the 2009 World Team Trophy, and she wasn’t there at 2009 Nationals either.

The second “problem” was the fact that the competition was in Korea. Soon after Mao arrived, she was caught on hidden camera by a hotel employee, and the video was posted on the internet. There was also talk on the internet among Korean netizens about trying to sabotage Mao by making strange noises during her programs or carrying offensive signs. As a result, the Korean Skating Union provided her with a team of burly bodyguards.

Mao with her Korean bodyguards

The invasion into Mao’s privacy was definitely infuriating, and it was a little disconcerting that Mao needed a team of bodyguards, but as usual, Mao seemed unfazed. She said that she had a team of bodyguards at the 2008 Grand Prix Final, and there even were some familiar faces, so she felt comfortable.

***

So I had high hopes for Mao heading into the SP. This might be her chance to break Yu-Na’s SP record, I thought.

So I was shocked when I found out the results the next morning—Mao Asada in 3rd place! Triple axel downgraded and triple flip popped! And a 1 point deduction for going over the time limit.

2010 Four Continents Championship SP
"Masquerade Waltz" by Aram Khachaturian

Mao was less than 2 points out of the lead, but I was devastated. I had never seen Mao Asada pop a flip in competition before. I knew that she had reworked that jump during the first half of the season, and I thought it was fixed. What could have gone so wrong that she popped it?

Moreover, it worried me greatly that her triple axel was judged underrotated. She said that she felt that she had done it just like in practice. And I thought, if that’s how she’s doing it in practice, that’s not good. It’s not rotated enough.

I thought, Mao must be really worried about TAT’s health. And all the attention from the Korean media, the online bashing, the need for bodyguards—that must be bothering her, even if she’d never admit it, never use it as an excuse.

Then I began to feel very depressed. Even if I added 5 points for the missed triple axel and 5 points for the missed flip, that would only increase her score to around 70 points—too low to challenge Yu-Na’s 76 points. I begin to question all of Mao’s decisions. Maybe doing the triple axel in the short was not a good idea after all; maybe she should have tried to work on her 3F-3Lo.

And I worried about how Mao would do in the long program. Since the 2008-09 season, Mao had maintained a pattern whereby her short program performance dictated her long program performance—i.e., if she didn’t have a good short program performance, she’d usually have a poor long performance too. (Conversely, if she nailed the short program, she’d often nail the long program too.) So given Mao’s subpar short program, I worried about what would happen if she had a subpar long program. Because it would look very bad in the eyes of the judges going into the Olympics if she lost 4CC to a very weak field.

***

Shizuka Arakawa offered me a ray of hope heading into the long program. In her analysis, it was good that Mao had made the mistakes in the SP here, and not at the Olympics. And there were no major problems with her technique, it was just that she missed the timing, so it’s nothing that will take a long time to fix. And she conjectured that if Mao could do everything that she can do in the free program, it would translate into confidence for the Olympics.

Separately, there were news articles that said that Akiko Suzuki’s coach, Hiroshi Nagakubo, had given some advice to Mao about her jumps. He said she just needed to rotate 45 degrees more, and given her strength, she should be able to fix that in 20 days. It warmed my heart to see a ‘rival’ skater’s coach offering her advice.

***

Going into the long program, I had a good feeling, and this morning I woke up to find out that Mao skated a nearly clean program and won! More importantly, she got credit for BOTH of her triple axels for the first time since December 2008.

I was ecstatic! She did it! Despite the absence of TAT, despite the nuisance of the Korean media and fans, she just went out and killed it.

2010 Four Continents Championship FS
“Prelude in C# Minor, Op. 3, No. 2 (Bells of Moscow)” by Rachmaninoff

(Click on the "YouTube" to be able to watch it in HD; it's worth it!)

Mao’s score was lower than I would’ve liked to see; in particular, her PCS were much lower than I thought she deserved. But she got full credit for her triple axels, and more importantly, she proved to herself that she could do it when it counts. And that, I thought, would surely translate into good results at the Olympics.

Yes, I think PJ Kwong’s comments say it all. The CBC commentator remarked, “The very first time I saw this program, I thought to myself that it was ponderous and heavy, and I didn't really understand the choice. I have to say, seeing her skate it like this tonight though, the music obviously fills her...and makes her skate with unbelievable passion and strength. She really is a force to be reckoned with...Terrific performance from Mao Asada...Really a thrilling performance. I really enjoyed that.”

Mao thinks that her performance in the long program will translate into the short program at the Olympics. After all, there she only has to do one triple axel. Easy peasy.

And in the LP, I think Mao will give one of those Olympic moment performances. When she thrusts her hands up into the sky with the final bell toll, I think it will ring in the hearts of everyone watching.

Because in this program, Mao Asada bares her very soul. She skates from the heart, telling the story of this season. How everyone lost faith; how they told her to change the music, change her jump layout, change her coach. How she at first plunged into despair, then refused to give up, and resolved to master her program and prove her detractors wrong. Yes, that iron will, that fiery determination is exactly what I see in “Bells” today. It’s a masterpiece!

But I don’t think it could have gotten there if everything had been smooth sailing for Mao. No, precisely because she suffered, she is now able to express the dark power of “Bells.” She has grown not only as a skater, but as a person as well.

Mao's in Korea for Four Continents!

2010-01-25T22:31:00.001-05:00

...and of course she gets mobbed by the media as soon as she steps off the plane.

But Mao's happy.

She's probably thinking, "soon I'll be eating bulgogi and bibimbap! Yum!"

Adorable outfit!

She's got smiles for everyone!

Because contrary to what you might think, Mao Asada loves Korea. Korean food is her favorite--she can never have too much yakiniku (Korean BBQ)! When she was being interviewed, she said, "I heard that Cheonju has delicious food, so I'm looking forward to it."

Unfortunately, Tarasova won't be there because she has been hospitalized. I wish her a speedy recovery, and I wish Mao the best of luck! Go Mao!

In honor of my second favorite skater...

2010-01-24T22:50:00.000-05:00

...whom I think should be US champion. Mirai Nagasu!

Congrats on making the Olympic team!!

Here are some clips of her with Mao!

1) Mirai met Mao one summer when Mao was in California visiting Mirai's rink for some training.

2) In 2007, Mirai went to Japan to perform in "THE ICE", Mao and Mai's ice show. During the performance, Mao and Mirai had a joint interview.

3) The next year, before "THE ICE", Mai and Mao took the foreign skaters on a sightseeing tour. Mirai was there for part of it:
(Fast-forward to 3:30)

Mao Asada's journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 6

2010-01-23T18:05:00.000-05:00

Part 6: 2006-07 season--Bittersweet Sixteen

Mao Asada won her first National title at home in Nagoya, and she won it with a broken finger.

Yes, about one week before the competition, Mao fell and broke her pinky finger. One would think that wouldn’t affect her skating that much, but in order to jump, you need to close your hands into fist and pull them to your chest. With her broken pinky, she could not jump. The doctor told them that it would take 10 days to heal, and Mao's mother thought their hopes for Nationals were ruined.

But Mao never lost hope. And she never complained. Not a soul in the media knew that Mao was competing with an injury, and she wanted to keep it that way. Because as with the Grand Prix Final, she didn’t want people to think she was making excuses.

In the end, no excuses were needed. Her finger healed just in time, and she skated beautifully in the short program, and phenomenally in the free skate, winning with over a 26-point lead.

2006 Japan National Championships SP
“Nocturne No. 2 in E-flat Major” by Chopin

(click on the YouTube to watch the actual link in HD)

2006 Japan National Championships FS
“Czardas” by Vittorio Monti

Up to that point, Mao had said she didn’t want to cry in public. But in that moment—does it get any better than winning your first title in your hometown?—she broke down and showed the nation her tears of joy.

***

After winning Japan Nationals, Mao looked ready to conquer the World. And the JSF had set the perfect stage for her senior World Championship debut—Tokyo.

And I thought, how perfect would it be if Mao won Worlds on her very first try, at home in Japan? After all, it’s the girl who won the GPF on her very first try, at home in Japan—it’s Miracle Mao.

2007 Worlds fluff on ESPN

Going into 2007 Worlds, I was both very excited and terribly nervous.

And then the unthinkable happened. Her perfect short program that had landed her in first place all season long—it failed her. She popped the second jump in her combo, the triple loop, and she found herself in 5th place after the short. She was more than 10 points behind the leader, Yu-Na Kim, who had electrified the crowd with her tango and set a world record score in the short program.

2007 World Championships SP
“Nocturne No. 2 in E-flat Major” by Chopin

Mao was devastated. She kept beating herself up over her mistake, becoming more and more dejected. So Mao’s mother did the only thing she could do—she scolded Mao. Fiercely. It broke her heart to do it, but she knew that the only way to make Mao stop beating herself up was to make her angry. “No, that wasn’t my best! Yes, I can do better! Yes, I CAN WIN!”

***

The next day, in the free skate, Yu-Na Kim faltered, perhaps due to the nerves of leading or the lingering effects of her injury.

Next up, was Mao Asada.

2007 World Championships FS
“Czardas” by Vittorio Monti

And I knew that everything would hinge on that first triple axel—and she nailed it! (Ok, it was two-footed, but I couldn’t tell.) The joy that she showed in her performance, the arm pumps after a successful jump, the way she practically skipped to her final pose —THAT was the Mao Asada I fell in love with at the 2005 GPF! THIS is why I watch Mao Asada!

Mao set a World record score in the free skate—133.13—and jumped to the lead with two skaters to go. Oh my god, I thought! She might just do it! She might just win!! How amazing would that be, after her disaster of a short program?

Kimmie Meissner skated next, but not nearly as well as Mao. That left only Miki Ando, who was second after the short.

My heart was thudding as I watched her skate. Miki pulled off a clean program. Would it be enough?

It was. In the end, Miki edged Mao Asada by a mere 0.64 points for the gold.

2007 Worlds podium: Mao Asada (Silver), Miki Ando (Gold), Yu-Na Kim (Bronze)

To have come so close, to have almost tasted gold—that must have been heartbreaking for Mao. She went and cried in the bathroom.

But she soon got over it. There would be other Worlds, other chances. Silver was pretty good for a first try. And she had learned an important lesson: no matter what happened in the short program, no matter how far behind she was, she could come out in the long and fight. She could deliver a clean program when it mattered the most. And that would be an invaluable lesson for seasons to come.

Addenda
1) Team Japan goofing around after 2007 Worlds. I love that they are so close.

(Translation can be found in the 2nd post here.)

2) The best exhibition program EVER. Mao Asada skating with her toy poodle, Aero, to music from “The Wizard of Oz” at the Japan Super Challenge in January 2007.

Yep, that’s a triple axel from steps. O_O

Mao Asada's journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 5

2010-01-23T17:47:00.000-05:00

Part 5: 2006-07 seasonWorld record scores

At her second event of the season, the NHK Trophy, Mao faced a do-or-die situation. If she finished first, she’d advance to the Grand Prix Final in St. Petersburg and have a chance to defend her title. If she finished below first, she’d stay home.

But that is not how her mother tried to motivate her. Instead of saying, “You have to win so that you can go to the Final,” Mao’s mother said, “Mao, take me to St. Petersburg. It’s someplace I’ve always wanted to go. We’ve talked about it many times, haven’t we? Let’s go there together—to Russia.” (1)

Mao recalls, “I did feel nervous. But I wanted to take Mama to St. Petersburg.” So in front of her home crowd, Mao not only won the competition, but she also received the highest total score a female skater had ever received—199.52.

2006 NHK Trophy SP (age 16)
“Nocturne No. 2 in E-flat Major” by Chopin

2006 NHK Trophy FS (age 16)
“Czardas” by Vittorio Monti

Mao with her NHK Trophy gold medal

Mao at the NHK studio after the competition

***

The Grand Prix Final in St. Petersburg proceeded much like the 2006 Skate America competition. Mao skated brilliantly in the short program and took the lead, but in the long program she fell on her opening triple axel and skated half-heartedly through the rest of her program. She finished second.

The book Mao Asada, Sweet Sixteen reveals what had happened behind the scenes. Mao and her mother had arrived in Russia early, so that they could explore St. Petersburg before the competition. Unfortunately, Mao caught a cold. But she never admitted to being sick; she never said “I have a cold” as a way to explain her disappointing silver.

Because Mao Asada refuses to make excuses. She will never say, “Oh, I had a cold,” or “I felt jet-lagged,” or “other skaters are obstructing me during the warm-up.” She, the lover of challenges, will take every obstacle, every hardship, as a way to push herself to be even better.

The 2006 GPF was important for two other reasons. First, it gave Mao the opportunity to meet Tatiana Tarasova, the legendary “champion maker.” Or rather, it gave TAT the opportunity to meet Mao, because it was the former who actively sought out the latter: Tarasova found Mao, and she said, “I want to work with you.”

***
Secondly, the 2006 GPF was Yu-Na Kim’s first major success on the senior circuit.

2006 Grand Prix Final podium: Mao Asada (Silver), Yu-Na Kim (Gold), Sarah Meier (Bronze)

I’m trying to remember what I thought of Yu-Na Kim back then. I do remember thinking that since she beat Mao Asada at the 2006 Jr. Worlds, she must be pretty good, but I don’t think it was that impressed when I first saw her skate that season.

Certainly, that was due in part to my Mao bias. Every time I watched her skate, I’d think, “ah, but Mao does this better; Mao does that better. She’s not as flexible…eww, where’s the turnout?”

I occasionally wonder what would have happened if I had seen Yu-Na Kim skate before I had ever seen Mao. Would I have become a Yu-Na fan? Would I have formed a pro-Yu-Na bias and disliked Mao?

I think the answer is probably not. Because if I hadn’t happened to see Mao on TV on that fateful New Year’s Day, I don’t think I’d be a skating fan at all. I might have watched the 2006 Olympics, and that would have been it.

It was the combination of Mao’s against-all-odds GPF win, the drama over whether she would get to go to the Olympics, and her beaming smile that made me care about skating.

And, in the end, as my friend judiciously remarked, “You like Mao Asada better because she’s cuter.” Yeah, I can’t disagree with that! ^_^;;

Notes
(1) From the book 浅田真央、１６歳 [Mao Asada, Sweet Sixteen], pg 98.

Mao Asada's journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 4

2010-01-23T17:09:00.000-05:00

Part 4: 2006-07 season--Growing pains

Mao’s Cinderella season combined with her adorable, charming personality elevated her to the status of national idol. As a result of her newfound stardom, Mao received several sponsorship offers and began to appear in a number of commercials.

But the cost of celebrity was steep: Mao had attracted so many fans that she could no longer practice at her home rink in Nagoya. Since it was a public rink, people would come and watch her practice, and eventually it became so crowded that she couldn’t practice at all, and instead was forced to purchase private ice time either very early in the morning or very late at night.

With Mao under constant media scrutiny and with no alternative practice facilities nearby, Coach Yamada finally suggested that Mao should leave her and train abroad. I can only imagine how much it pained her to send away one of her most beloved students, one she had watched grow from a tiny 10-year old jumping bean to an international skating star.

After careful consideration, they chose Rafael Artunian, one of Michelle Kwan’s former coaches and a renowned jump technician.

Mao Asada and Rafael Artunian

So in the summer of 2006, Mao, Mai and their mother moved to Lake Arrowhead, California so the two sisters could train with Artunian at a private rink.

Mai and Mao at the rink in Lake Arrowhead

A new country, a new coach. Those were two big changes.

The third big change was in Mao herself. She had grown significantly taller over the off-season, and at 16, she had reached a kind of intermediate stage where she was no longer little Mao but not fully grown either.

This sense of awkward in-between-ness was evident when Mao went to Toronto to have Lori Nichol choreograph her programs. Up to that point, Coach Yamada and Coach Higuchi had always selected Mao’s programs for her. Now she was being asked to pick her own music, and it was overwhelming. Lori Nichol asked her, “Don’t you have an opinion, Mao?”, and Mao realized that no one had ever asked her that.

***

As her first Grand Prix competition of the 2006-07 season approached, I felt some apprehension. At this point, I was just a casual fan. I watched the competitions on TV when they were aired, and occasionally I would look up some news about Mao, but I didn’t know about the skating forums, and I was somewhat out of the loop.

However, I was aware that Mao had moved to the US and that she had grown a lot, and I worried about how much these things would impact her skating. Would she still be able to dominate without her longtime coach, who was more like a beloved grandmother to her? Would she still be able to do her amazing jumps now that she had grown so much? Was she just a one-hit wonder?

After watching her short program at the 2006 Skate America, however, I realized my fears were overblown.

2006 Skate America SP (age 16)
“Nocturne No. 2 in E-flat Major” by Chopin

It was perfect. From the first time she skated it, the program fit Mao like a glove, showcasing her effortless jumps, balletic grace, unfussy elegance, and shimmering musicality. Even today, I consider this program to be one of her most memorable, and one of the most “Mao-like.”

She easily claimed the lead after the short program.

In the free skate the next day, however, Mao Asada popped her opening triple axel, and her program went downhill from there. She finished 4th in the long program and dropped to 3rd overall.

For Mao Asada, the triple axel is not just her best jump, her favorite jump; it’s also her signature. In her mind (and in the minds of many), “Mao Asada” is synonymous with “triple axel.” So when she popped the triple axel in the long program, she kind of gave up.

In truth, she had been struggling with the triple axel, in part due to her growth spurt, and in part due to a new challenge she had undertaken. Rafael and Mao decided that attempting two triple axels in the free program was too much, so they changed her second jump combo from a 3A-2T (triple axel/double toe loop) combo to a 2A-3T (double axel/triple toe loop) combo. To make the one triple axel more challenging, Mao was working on a difficult entrance to the jump—a series of brackets, swift shifts back and forward on her right leg, before the takeoff. If Mao could land the jump successfully, she should receive high GOE’s, they thought. Mao was already planning for the next Olympics, and in her mind, this skill, this “weapon,” would be something she would be able to use four years later in Vancouver.

Mao Asada's journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 3

2010-01-17T01:25:00.000-05:00

Part 3: 2005-06 season--“Miracle Mao”

Heading into the Grand Prix Final in December 2005, Mao Asada had attracted quite a bit of attention from the skating world and the media. But the undefeated Irina Slutskaya remained the heavy favorite.

So it came as quite a surprise when Mao found herself first after the short program, after Irina Slutskaya made an uncharacteristic mistake on her triple flip.

2005 Grand Prix Final SP, “Carmen” (age 15)
(The commentary is from ESPN, but the video is the Japanese broadcast.)

The next day was the long program, and that would prove to be a key performance for Mao and for me.

On New Year’s Day, 2006, my mom and I were flipping channels and just happened to come across figure skating on ESPN. (It was a repeat broadcast from nearly two weeks prior, but I didn’t know that then). At the time, I hadn’t watched skating in nearly a decade. As a child, I had been quite interested in figure skating when Kristi Yamaguchi won the Olympics, but after the 1998 Olympics, I had lost interest. But I had a vague recollection of having heard about a teen phenom skater from Japan, and it would be the Olympics soon, so we decided to keep watching. Plus, ESPN did a good job of hyping the competition through its fluff pieces.

2005 Grand Prix Final – fluff stuff on ESPN
(Gotta love Terry Gannon!)

Irina Slutskaya pulled off a flawless program. Then it was time for the final skater—Mao Asada. What an unusual name, I thought. But what a cute girl!

2005 Grand Prix Final FS, “Nutcracker” (age 15)
(The commentary is from ESPN, but the video is the Japanese broadcast.)

That amazing triple axel, those effortless jumps, but even more so, the beaming smile, the exuberance and that perfectly apt “Nutcracker” program! I became an instant fan, and was utterly charmed by the genuine joy Mao expressed in the kiss ’n’ cry.

2005 Grand Prix Final FS Kiss ‘n’ cry
Mao with her coach, Machiko Yamada

Needless to say, Mao received her highest scores in her career up to that point, and she won in front of a thrilled home crowd. With that unlikely defeat of the heavy favorite, the adorable 15-year old was launched to stardom in Japan and lauded as “Miracle Mao.”

2005 Grand Prix Final banquet
Back row: Nobunari Oda, Daisuke Takahashi
Front row: Yukari Nakano, Mao Asada, Miki Ando

***

At the Japanese National Championships a few weeks after the GPF, Mao performed her second “miracle”: she successfully landed two triple axels in her long program, another world first.

2005 Japan National Championships FS (age 15)

In this hard-fought competition to determine Olympic representatives, Mao finished second.

But she wouldn’t get to go to the Olympics. Instead, Japan would send the #1, #3 and controversially, the #6 skaters from Nationals—Fumie Suguri, Shizuka Arakawa, and Miki Ando, respectively.

The reason why? Because the age rules said that skaters had to be 15-years old by June 30th of the previous year in order to compete in the Olympics, and Mao Asada was 87 days too young.

The skating world had been buzzing over the age rules since Mao debuted on the senior circuit, but after Mao’s win at the Grand Prix Final and her amazing performance at Japan Nationals, the controversy reached a fever pitch.

And the Japanese Skating Federation found itself in a difficult situation. Under the JSF's plan, Mao Asada was not supposed to win the Grand Prix Final. No, the 2005-06 season was supposed to be just a "warm-up run"; in the 2006-07, when she was a true senior, she was supposed to make her glorious debut. They even set the perfect stage for her--2007 Worlds at home in Tokyo.

But now, many Japanese fans were clamoring for the JSF to petition for an exemption to the age rule and send Mao to the Olympics. Prime Minister Koizumi expressed his view that Mao should be allowed to go. Even the Western media took notice of the controversy.

2006 ABC News clip

But, in the end, 87 days too young was deemed 87 days too young, and Mao was not allowed to compete.

For her part, Mao was rather unperturbed by the controversy. Surely, part of her wanted to go to the Olympics, and wondered what would have happened if she went, but she hadn’t planned for that. She had always known that she would be too young to go to the 2006 Olympics, and instead, she had long ago set her sights on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

***

Mao Asada’s 2005-06 competition season ended with a second appearance at Junior Worlds. (According to the rules, she was also too young to compete at Senior Worlds, despite having competed on the Senior circuit for the entire first half of the season.)

Perhaps it was her first taste of pressure, her first time facing expectations that she’d win; perhaps it was burnout/loss of motivation after a glorious Grand Prix season, where she’d done far better than she’d ever imagined; or perhaps it was the disappointment of missing the Olympics and being demoted to the junior level.

At any rate, Mao was not herself. She managed to land a triple axel in the short program, another first for a junior lady, but overall her performances were filled with mistakes, and she finished second to a Korean skater who had done quite well on the junior circuit that season—Yu-Na Kim.

But back then, the shy, reserved Yu-Na didn’t think that she had “won.” Instead, she thought that she won because “Mao was not her best.”

Mao Asada's journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 2

2010-01-17T01:10:00.000-05:00

Part 2: 2005-06 season--a stellar senior debut

There is a Japanese phrase that describes 15-year old Mao perfectly: 天真爛漫 [Ten-shin-ran-man], which means “artless, innocent.”

The bright-eyed Mao knew nothing of pressure, felt no worry nor fear. There was no need to carefully weigh her words for the media; she simply said the first thing that came to her head without thinking, punctuating her words with her brilliant smile.

She faced each competition with a fresh excitement. Her first stop, her senior debut, was in Beijing at the Cup of China. There, she placed 2nd to Irina Slutskaya, who was not only the reigning World Champion but also undefeated during the previous season.

2005 Cup of China podium: Mao Asada (Silver), Irina Slutskaya (Gold), Shizuka Arakawa (Bronze)

Mao meets Irina Slutskaya

At her next event, the Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris, Mao successfully landed her triple axel for the first time on the Senior circuit and won her first Senior Grand Prix event. Here she even beat the eventual Olympic gold and silver medalists, Shizuka Arakawa and Sasha Cohen.

2005 Trophee Eric Bompard podium: Sasha Cohen (Silver), Mao Asada (Gold), Shizuka Arakawa (Bronze)

By placing 1st and 2nd at her two GP events, Mao qualified for the Grand Prix Final, which would be held in her home country, in Tokyo. There she would compete with the top 6 skaters from the GP series, who were arguably the top 6 in the World.

And yet, she felt no fear, no nerves. Her biggest concern at this point was perhaps growing up: as Shizuka Arakawa recalls, she noticed that Mao had changed the top of her Nutcracker costume, and when she asked her about it, Mao replied, “I grew, so the sleeve ripped.”

Mao had no expectations about winning, but that does not mean she did not have goals. As we will see, Mao Asada’s journey has been a story of tackling challenges and pushing technical limits, and the 2005-06 season was no different. Having proved that she had mastered the triple axel in the previous season, she aimed to attempt a feat that no lady skater had ever accomplished—two triple axels in a single program.

Mao Asada's journey and my evolution as a Mao fan: Part 1

2010-01-13T02:20:00.000-05:00

In this series of posts, I want to describe Mao Asada's journey as a skater and a star, and at the same time, I want to document my own evolution from totally ignorant, to casual fan to crazy obsessed Mao uber.
******************************************
Part 1: Prologue

Are we destined for greatness, or do we make ourselves great?

How much does success depend on luck and inborn talent, and how much on hard work, dedication and support?

While pondering these questions, I turn to the story of Mao Asada...

***
Mao Asada (浅田真央) was born on September 25, 1990 in Nagoya, Japan. She has an older sister, Mai (浅田舞), who is two years older than her.

Mao (3) and Mai (5)

(from the Mao and Mai Asada official website)

Mao Asada was not supposed to be a skater, but she was supposed to be a star.

Mao’s mother, Kyouko, loved ballet and wanted her daughters to be "world-class ballerinas." In fact, the character for Mai’s name means “dance,” and she is named after Maya Plisetskaya, a famous Russian ballerina. (Mao’s father, Toshiharu, named her after Mao Daichi, a famous Japanese actress. Thanks to their mother’s aspirations, Mao and Mai started ballet together when Mao was 3.

Mao (3) and Mai (5) at their first ballet lesson

When Mao was 5 years old, she and Mai went skating with a friend, and they liked it so much that they started taking classes. Kyouko said that she wanted them do skating to strengthen their ankles, especially Mao, who was very thin.

Mao - age 5
This is a clip from an April 2008 interview. At 5:30, you can see Mao skating at her first competition. Adorable!

Throughout her childhood, Mao participated in all kinds of activities—jazz dance, swimming, piano, etc. She and Mai went to an international elementary school for four years, and they even spent three summers in Hawaii as part of a study abroad program. But in the end, Mao decided that what she loved best of all was skating.

When Mao was 10 years old, she and Mai started training with Coach Machiko Yamada, Midori Ito’s former coach. To this day, she remains one of Mao’s beloved mentors.

2000 Novice Nationals (age 10)

In 2002, when she was 12 years old, Mao landed in the national spotlight for the first time. Although she was still too young for the junior circuit, let alone the senior circuit, she received a special invitation to compete at the senior National Championships. There she wowed the crowd and commentators by landing a triple-triple-triple combination (the first ever for a lady!) in her free program and finishing 7th.

2002 Japan Nationals FS (age 12)
(This starts with a recap of her SP.)

The first jump she attempted in the program was a triple axel. At this point, it was heavily underrotated, but you can see that even at 12 years of age, Mao was on her way to making the elusive triple axel her signature jump.

Soon after her success at Nationals, she stated her lifelong dream on TV: “I want to go to the Olympics, win the gold medal, and travel around the world.”

***

In 2004, Mao turned 14, and she was finally old enough to compete on the junior circuit. At this point, the triple axel was an established weapon in her formidable arsenal, a highlight of her long program.

She steamrolled the competition, easily winning her two Junior Grand Prix events and the Junior Grand Prix Final. (Mao Asada’s score at the 2004 JGPF: 172.83. The distant #2, a skater named Yu-Na Kim, scored 137.75). She even finished 2nd at the Japan Nationals (to Miki Ando).

(View the video of her FS here).

In spring 2005, she again proved herself in a class by herself at Junior Worlds, becoming the first woman to land a triple axel at Junior Worlds. And she won even despite a slight mishap with a skate lace that became untied. Here too, she beat the silver medalists (Yu-Na Kim again) by over 20 points.

2005 Junior Worlds SP (age 14)

2005 Junior Worlds FS (age 14)

2005 Junior Worlds podium: Yu-Na Kim (silver), Mao Asada (gold), Emily Hughes (bronze)

Winning Junior Worlds was important for two reasons.

First, Mao’s mother had promised that she could get a dog if she won, so Mao became the proud owner of a toy poodle, which she named Aero. (See Aero's full profile and pics here.)

Second, Mao was granted a special exemption to compete on the senior Grand Prix circuit in the 2005-06 season, even though she was officially too young to compete at either the senior World Championships or the Olympics.

This exemption would have important implications not only for Mao, but also for the world of figure skating, and for me as a future fan.

***
Addenda:

1) For my translation of an interview with Mai and Mao and some comments from Machiko Yamada from 2003, please see here.

2) In this clip from April 2009, Mao meets with her childhood ballet teacher, Kumiko Ochi, for the first time in many years, and there are clips of her doing ballet as a child.

3) My favorite anecdote of little Mao comes from when she was in Hawaii. (This was told in the book 浅田真央、１５歳 [Mao Asada, Fifteen years old]). Apparently Mao was playing with the telephone and managed to dial 911. As a result, a bunch of police showed up at their apartment; they thought perhaps a child was being held hostage or something. OOPS! :D
For more anecdotes from the book, please see here.

"Challenge" versus "Safety"

2009-02-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, the article is no longer available for free viewing, but I thought it was very interesting that the Chosun Ilbo (a Korean newspaper) characterized the Mao/Yu-Na rivalry this way.

The main body of the article is about the decision by Yu-Na's management for her to remove the triple loop jump, her weakness, and replace it with a double axel, which is very consistent, from now and through the Olympics. Basically, they want her to give up on trying to land it successfully. Because Yu-Na's strategy is "safety/security."

In contrast, it points out that Mao is going to try to do the triple lutz jump, which she doubled at 4CC, and the triple-triple combination, which she has not landed successfully all season. Because Mao's strategy is "challenge." Instead of avoiding the problems in her programs, Mao Asada attacks them.

A new fan video on youtube captures Mao's spirit perfectly, I think.
I find the two quotes from Tatiana Tarasova (Mao's coach) and Mao to be very inspiring:
Tarasova: "To stay on top, you must continue to grow."
Mao: "If you run away from challenges, you cannot grow."

mao asada Challenge & Evolution

Thank you Mao, for inspiring me with your "soul of a challenger."

2009 Four Continents Championship

2009-02-16T00:32:00.000-05:00

This is a piece I wrote the week after the Four Continents Championship (Vancouver, Feb. 2-8, 2009). For detailed info about the event and results, see the official website.
____________________________________________________________________
The Four Continents Championship.

In most years, the top skaters give it a miss, preferring to rest up and practice for worlds. This year, however, the 4CC was being held in Vancouver, at the Pacific Coliseum, as the test event for the 2010 Olympics. Furthermore, because Mao and Yu-Na would be competing head-to-head, it was deemed a major competition.

Mao Asada's said her goal for 4CC was to "do all my elements fully" and "find the problems in my programs so that I can them for Worlds." Yu-Na's goal for this competition was revenge. After losing to Mao at the Grand Prix Final in her home country of Korea and in front of a wildly supportive crowd, Yu-Na Kim vowed to "never show tears again." In Vancouver, in her second home country, Yu-Na and her coach, Brian Orser, thought "this is our chance to beat Mao."

Going into the competition, everything seemed to be going wrong. News reports from the beginning of the year said that Mao would go to Russia after she finished her ice shows in Japan and then would head straight to Vancouver from Moscow. But days before 4CC, inexplicably, she was shown leaving from Nagoya, Japan. She arrived in Vancouver just two hours before the first official practice and went straight from the airport to the ice rink. There, things got worse. First, the rink turned out to be an NHL-sized rink (61 meters x 26 meters) versus the Olympic-sized rink (60 meters x 30 meters) to which Mao was accustomed. With 2 meters less space on either side, Mao had to rework some of her skating patterns and adjust her jump approaches across the width of the rink. In fact, at the first practice, Mao didn't jump at all. She just skated around, trying to get used to the narrow rink.

The second big shock was that inexplicably, Mao's coach, Tatiana Tarasova, was not there, and not planning to come either. Mao would not explain the reason, but simply said that Tarasova told her to do all her elements properly.

Next came the reports that Mao's condition was not good; she was having problems landing her jumps, especially the triple-triple combination that she hadn't received full credit for all season, and the triple lutz, which Mao had re-learned over the summer and which seemed to be fine after Mao's first disastrous competition.

So heading into the short program, I was quite nervous.

Out of the 36 competitors in the ladies' discipline, Mao was skating 33rd, right before Yu-Na Kim. On the combo jump, Mao landed the first jump, went up for the second, rotated it, but stepped out on the landing. Not good. Then, Mao doubled the triple lutz, as she had been doing in practice. The rest was okay, but Mao seemed awfully slow and uninspired in her skating. She scored 57.86, her second worst score ever, and fell into fourth place with two skaters to go.

Then Yu-Na Kim was up, and perhaps knowing that Mao had messed up, she went out and skated perfectly. Standing ovation and a new world record score - 72.24. Finally, the last skater, Joannie Rochette of Canada, went out and skated well, putting up a good 66.90.

At the end of the short program, Mao was in sixth place, almost 15 points away from 1st and almost 7 points out of second place. And I was crushed.

Yes, Mao has had amazing comebacks.

At 2007 Worlds, something very similar occurred. In the short program, Mao made a mistake on her triple-triple combo, popping the second jump. She scored only 61.32, her lowest score of the season. Yu-Na Kim, on the other hand, set a world record in the short program with a score of 71.95, and Mao found herself in 5th place, more than 10 points behind first and almost 6 points behind second. But in the long program, Mao fought back with everything she had, scored a new world record, and rocketed into second place, just barely missing gold.

Similarly, at the 2007 Grand Prix Final, Mao had another disastrous short program - she put her hand down after her triple-triple combo and then slipped on the approach for the triple lutz, skipping it altogether. She ended up in last place (6th). The next day, however, she put out an almost perfect program, very nearly hitting her personal best score, and finished second.

So a huge comeback was not out of the question. But Mao had never been 15 points behind before, and her condition didn't seem good. This was not good-condition Mao who made an unexpected mistake in the short, and got rid of all the jitters in time for the long program. No, this seemed like the bad-condition Mao who had a disastrous short program at her first competition of the season (the Trophee Eric Bompard) and couldn't pull it together for the long program.

Indeed, after the short program, in interviews, Mao revealed that her condition had been bad from before she came to Vancouver. She denied that the smaller rink was a problem, and she denied that Tarasova's absence was affecting her.

The practice reports from the following days were not more positive. Not only was Mao's condition not improving, but there was talk about only doing one triple axel and doing only a triple-double combo instead of a triple-triple.

And that is when I started to wonder if Mao was injured or sick. Backing down from a challenge is not Mao's style at all. No, when Mao is far behind and there is nothing to lose - that is precisely when Mao goes for the hardest program she can manage and takes the big risks. And then there was the aborted trip to Russia that was not explained - could that have been because of an injury? It would be just like Mao to say nothing even if she were injured, because she absolutely hates saying anything that could be construed as an excuse.

So then my thinking about the competition changed. Forget winning, forget coming back from behind; I just wanted Mao to finish the competition without (further) injury. Surely Mao would rebound from whatever happened here and be super motivated for Worlds. Of course, I was worried too - what would it do to Mao's confidence if she finished off the podium? Moreover, since the 4CC was being held at the 2010 Olympic venue, would two bad skates leave a bad memory in Mao's head for the Olympics? And what about the judges? Would Mao's reputation in their minds be damaged by a poor showing here?

So going into the long program, I was worried, but also subded, because a big comeback was looking impossible. There was no reason to be excited.

Mao was scheduled to skate first in the final group--right after the warm-up. The first jump of her long program, the triple axel--she popped it. For the first time the whole season, Mao messed up her first jump, and I thought "Oh no, this is the end." A huge comeback now out of the question, I thought Mao would give up, and I prepped for disaster.

But here Mao surprised me. Having missed the first triple axel attempt, Mao attacked the second one and landed it beautifully. Then came the triple flip-double loop-double loop combo. Gorgeous as usual. And then instead of the problematic triple salchow, a lovely triple loop. She did change the triple-triple combo into a triple-double combo, and she doubled the intended triple toe loop, but the rest of Mao's program was clean.

Battling a number of obstacles--a narrow rink, no coach, a real chance of not medaling--Mao did the best she could. She didn't look happy after she finished, but she didn't look defeated either.

And despite the errors, Mao's scores were quite satisfying: 118.66, only about 8 points below her season's best score, and about 15 points below her personal best. Probably not good enough to challenge for gold or even silver, but not bad.

Next up was Joannie Rochette, in second place after the short. She skated what I thought was a nearly flawless program--the only mistake I saw was one popped jump. I figured Joannie would score in the 120s, but I was wrong! She scored only 117.01. Below Mao! Unbelievable!

The following three skaters did pretty well too--a few errors, but no falls--but they all scored below 115. And then I was truly excited--with only Yu-Na left to skate, Mao was guaranteed at least a bronze!

High off her overwhelming victory in the short, with a huge lead, and with the crowd behind her, Yu-Na surely would pull off an amazing long program, I thought. She started with her huge triple flip/triple toe combo - wow. But then, on the second jump, the triple loop--her nemesis--she fell. After that one mistake, though, it was Yu-Na as usual. Solid. Another standing ovation.

I expected another huge score, high 120s or so. But then I was stunned. Not only did Yu-Na not even reach the 120s, she scored 116.83, below Mao and even below Joannie! Mao, with a subpar skate, had managed to win the long program!

And that is when the elation fully set in. To me, the judges had sent a clear message. A struggling Mao Asada with two visible errors is still better than Joannie and Yu-Na with one visible mistake each.

A close look at the protocols (judging sheets) revealed what had happened. Joannie didn't get cred it for one of her jump sequences, and Yu-Na got three underrotation calls. And I thought, Joannie and Yu-Na should really be worried. With one popped triple axel, one messed up triple toe loop, no third combo and no triple lutz, Mao still managed to beat them in the long. Once Mao is in good condition and maximizes her potential, then her scores will be astronomical.

Mao only took home the bronze, but to me, it was a mental victory. It's difficult to explain how impressed I was that she went after the second triple axel after missing the first one. When she popped the first one - it was the first time it had happened all season. In the past two seasons, Mao had a hard time landing the triple axel - most of the time she would pop it, or fall, or miss it altogether, as she did at 2008 Worlds. But since she was used to failing on the first jump, she got used to picking herself up and doing the rest of the program solidly.

This season, however, Mao completed the triple axel every single time she attempted it - yes, a few of them were called underrotated, and one was a two-footed landing, but to the average viewer like me, they looked clean every time. No pops and no falls.

So when Mao popped her first triple axel, I thought it would kill her confidence, since it meant she messed up something she had done fine all season long. I was pretty sure she would avoid another triple axel attempt. But I was wrong; Mao attempted it, and she did it perfectly. That will to go after it after making a mistake, taking that risk again - it really impressed me.

More importantly, I could see that Mao was fired up for Worlds. 4CC was like a practice competition; it doesn't really count for anything. Now Mao is the one who wants revenge and will be fighting for it. But Mao's goal is not just to win Worlds; her goal is to bring out her personal best and hopefully make a new set of world records. Oh boy, am I excited for Worlds!

* * *

It would be easy to end here, but the story goes on.

The day after the competition, the media questioned Mao about why her condition was bad, and Mao said, "It's a secret." "I know what the problem is, and I want to fix it for Worlds." In typical Mao fashion, she revealed nothing about what problems she could be facing; she refused to make excuses.

But news reports surfaced and reported that Mao's right knee had been hurting in mid-January, so she was not able to practice as fully as she would've liked to.

After I heard that news, Mao's 3rd place finish seemed like an amazing accomplishment. What an outstanding athlete, what an amazing person. Without complaining, without making excuses, she went out and gave the best she could in her current condition.

But that was not the end of it! The next day, when asked about these knee injury reports, Mao said, "It's not true at all." When asked if she missed practice because of injury, she said "That's not true."

What actually happened, no one seems to know. Mao certainly won't say. In Mao's mind, the extenuating circumstances don't matter. Her performance was not good, she was not satisfied, she's going to train harder and aim to do her very best at Worlds. End of story. There is no room for excuses, for saying "I wasn't used to the rink," or "I was worried about my coach," or "my knee felt funny." There is only the will to move forward, to aim for something even better.

And this is why I respect Mao Asada not only as an amazing skater, but also as an amazing person.

Why you should care about Mao Asada

2009-02-15T23:54:00.000-05:00

This is something I wrote in the first week of December, right after the 2008 NHK Trophy. It was my first attempt to argue for why people should care about Mao Asada, and why she is better than Yu-Na Kim.
____________________________________________________________________
Right now I'm going to try to convince you once and for all why you should care.

Because Mao Asada isn't chasing gold medals, she's chasing history. She doesn't just want just win competitions, she wants to be the very best she can be--which could be the very best skater ever.

And she's going to try to do it while facing another potentially legendary skater--Yu-Na Kim of Korea. Right now, they are in a class of their own. If only one existed, she would be the undisputed best, but because they are both competing, they push each other to be even better.

Have there ever been a pair of rivals who were on the surface so similar?
This is no Nastia Liukin/Shawn Johnson battle of opposites. Mao and Yu-Na are the same age (18yrs old, just 20 days apart), similar ethnicities (East Asian), same height (tall-ish), same build (stick thin). Both have excellent jumps, beautiful spins, top-notch skating skills, lovely artistry, and fabulous flow. Yu-Na Kim holds the world records for highest short program and long program scores individually; Mao Asada holds the record for highest total score.

They are wonderfully complete skaters, they are kind and humble people, and having spent most of their teenage years in the spotlight, they are wildly popular stars. But that is where the similarities end. Their personalities and their approaches to skating are completely different.

Yu-Na Kim is the consummate professional. Always calm and collected, she is incredibly consistent. Despite her delicate frame, she has power on the ice, and she does most of her jumps "textbook perfect" and beautifully. In addition, she is an expressive performer. Off the ice, she's a bit reserved and even mysterious, reacting to her scores with small polite smiles. On the ice, however, she actively tries to act out the music, and she uses her body and her face to portray the emotion.

Everything Yu-Na does, she does well, and she rarely makes mistakes.

Yu-Na Kim's short program, 'Danse Macabre' (from 2008 Skate America):

Yu-Na Kim's long program, 'Scheherazade' (from 2008 Cup of China):

But Yu-Na Kim's not invincible.

In fact, while Yu-Na Kim has excelled in the first half of the past two seasons, winning consecutive Grand Prix Final titles, by the time Worlds rolled around, she's fallen victim to injury both times and ended up with two consecutive bronze medals.

Mao Asada, on the other hand, has ended the past two seasons with a World Silver and a World Gold medal, but what a roller coaster ride it has been to get there!

Unlike the calm and level-headed Yu-Na, Mao sometimes suffers from nerves, messing up jumps that she can do effortlessly in practice. And it shows. While Yu-Na is cool off the ice and a talented actress on it, Mao wears her heart on her sleeve at all times. On the ice, this means that her face is usually a mask of concentration and detachment, and this is where she usually gets a lot of criticism.

But that does not mean she is not expressive. Mao may not use her face much, but she feels the music from her fingers through her toes. And although Yu-Na really works to sell the music, Mao, with her ballet background, has a natural, effortless grace, superior flexibility and extension, and beautiful body lines.

And as soon as the music ends, Mao usually erupts into a torrent of emotion. Relief or disappointment, dejection or joy. She is often in tears--sometimes of joy and sometimes bitter disappointment.

Yu-Na skates her best because that's what's expected of her; she gets the job done. Mao skates because she loves it and wants to show the world what she can do. And therein lies the second difference.

Yu-Na Kim's strategy is to do what she knows she can do and work to execute it absolutely perfectly. She does the same elements every year, but every year she does them a little more cleanly and confidently.

Mao Asada also wants to do her programs perfectly, but more importantly, she wants to challenge herself and raise the bar of ladies' elite skating in the process. She tries new things, she attempts the most technically challenging programs, and she takes big risks. Sometimes the results are disastrous, and sometimes they're amazing.

Take this season, for example. Unlike Miki Ando, the 2007 World champion, who sort of lost her motivation after winning, Mao took her 2008 Worlds win as a reason to really challenge herself, because now everyone else would be chasing her. So she hired Tatiana Tarasova, the legendary Russian "champion maker" as her coach, and set a number of ambitious goals for herself.

First: add the triple salchow jump back to her repertoire.
Although it's one of the easiest jumps, Mao dislikes it, so for the past 3 years, she's omitted it. However, there has been talk that the rules will change so that doing all five types of triple jumps (toe loop, salchow, loop, flip, and lutz) will get a bonus. (The triple axel is a 3.5 revolution jump, so it's more like a quad.) So Mao has proactively reintroduced the salchow into her long program.

Second: fix the triple lutz technique.
In the 2007-08 season, the ISU judges cracked down on the take-off edges for jumps, and Mao kept receiving deductions for her improper lutz technique. Instead of taking off on an outside edge (leaning to the left on the left blade), Mao takes off on the inside edge, which is incorrect. This type of jump mistake is extremely hard to fix because it involves retraining a technique that you have done the wrong way for years.

Third: do TWO triple axels in the long program
Mao is already one of the five women who have ever landed the triple axel in international competition, but that's not enough for her. No one has ever done two in international competition before (although she performed this feat at the 2005 Japan Nationals), so it would be a world first.
Another reason she decided to try this is because the base value of the triple axel was raised from 7.5 to 8.2 pts (compared to 4.0 pts for a triple toe loop and 6.0 for a triple lutz). At the same time, however, the scale of deductions for mistakes was also increased, making the triple axel a high risk-high reward jump.
To further up the stakes, Mao has been training a triple axel-triple toe loop combination, which would be the hardest combo jump any lady has ever done. If she succeeds in that, it would be another world first.

Beyond these major changes, Mao worked on her expression, she added two new spin positions to her repertoire, and prepared perhaps the most difficult ladies' step sequence ever for her long program.

Going into Mao's first Grand Prix event of the year, the Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris, expectations were sky high, especially after Yu-Na's total domination at Skate America and Cup of China. But Mao failed miserably. Sure, she ended up #2, but by Mao's standards, it was a disaster. She missed her triple-triple combination and doubled the triple lutz in the short; in the long program she had a two-foot landing on the triple axel, skipped the second one, popped the combo again, and fell on a popped salchow.

Mao was very disappointed, and the criticism came fast and furious. "Mao's trying to change too many things. It's too hard to fix the lutz. It's way too risky to try two triple axels. That program is too difficult for any lady to do. There's no time to rest. It's a men's long program." People questioned Mao's mental toughness and her ability to deal with the pressure of being #1. The figure skating fans bashed Tarasova's coaching ability, invoked the "curse of the World champion", and blamed the Japanese media for suffocating their skaters.

Even I became seriously worried. Not because I thought Mao was trying too much--on the contrary, I guessed that she was doing everything perfectly in practice--but because the inability to execute in competition hinted at mental weakness, and those mental problems are the hardest to overcome.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

Instead of feeling discouraged and crumbling under the criticism as I feared, Mao found a new sense of fighting spirit. Sure, she had had plenty of poor skates over the past two seasons, but she not had two bad skates in a single competition, and I think it was a wake-up call. So she went back to Moscow and practiced her jumps extensively. As I found out later, under Tarasova's recommendations, she had only been practicing 3-4 hours on the ice instead of her usual 6-7 hours, but after the Trophee, Mao went back to doing things her way and practiced her jumps extensively.

So two weeks later, Mao came home to the NHK Trophy in Japan with something to prove. And it was magical:

Mao Asada's short program, 'Clair de Lune':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7i9UowJSAI
(I'm too incompetent to embed this.)

How beautiful and expressive was that?!
She hits the triple-triple combination! And she nailed the triple lutz! It was clean, no deductions; in fact, she got positive grades of execution. The score wasn't as high as she wanted (ok, so her triple-triple combo got downgraded to a triple-triple, and she bobbled the spiral sequence), but that just fueled Mao's inner fire.

The next day she came out and attacked her long program:

Mao Asada's long program, 'Masquerade Waltz':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvNslhkqDVE

This was very nearly history making. She attacks her first triple axel and then comes back for the triple axel-double toe combo! She hits the triple salchow! She may have skipped her triple-triple combo, but she hit all her jumps beautifully!

And then that step sequence. Unbelievable. Tarasova told her to do it full out "even if it kills you," and it nearly did! Stunning!

Mao skated her heart out, and both the audience and she knew it. The joy and satisfaction on her face at the end of her program was priceless! WOW, MAO, WOW!

And even though her second triple axel was judged underrotated, and she missed breaking world records, she was happy. Because she overcame the extreme pressure, the criticism, and her own lack of confidence and showed the world that she is fully and totally deserving of her World title.

And that is why I am a Mao fan.

Next week, Mao and Yu-Na will face off for the first time this season at the Grand Prix Final in Korea. Yu-Na Kim might very well maintain her dominance and capture her third straight Grand Prix Final title in front of her home crowd. (She may even go on to win Worlds.)

Mao Asada is planning to do an even more difficult program at the GPF, adding in the triple-triple combo and replacing the easy triple toe loop with her newly-fixed triple lutz. She might struggle like she did in Paris, especially in front of a potentially hostile Korean crowd. But she might not. She might rise to the occasion and deliver the definitive, world-record shattering performance that will cement her at the top.

THAT is why you should care.

Sure, Yu-Na Kim is consistently impressive, and sure, Mao can deliver crushing disappointment. But Mao also offers the chance to see an athlete push herself and her sport to the limit, a chance to see history made.

And when Mao Asada does achieve her true potential, I cannot wait to see the unrestrained, overflowing joy on her face--that brilliant, beaming "Mao Smile"!

Meet Mao Asada

2009-01-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

This is perhaps my favorite Mao Asada montage - I think it captures her happy, sweet, guileless disposition and her beaming smile:

maomao - montage
(click on the button on the far right and select 'HQ' for the high-quality vid)

Fuyu no Ohimesama

2009-01-31T21:35:00.000-05:00

I got this idea from a thread on 2channel that called Mao Asada "haru no ohimesama," meaning "Princess of Spring"--but the more I thought about it, I decided that I really want Mao to be princess of the Winter Olympics, and skating really is a winter sport, so I changed it to "Princess of Winter."

On this blog, I intend to post all my random rambling on skating, which is perhaps too opinionated and biased and un-PC to go on the forums without invoking the wrath of the ubers.