Kaori Sakamoto "Turn everything into a positive!" Bronze medal with luck on your side
"I think I'm very lucky. I think God is the one who has been saved in various situations and rewarded for what he has done."
Kaori Sakamoto (21), a women's single from the Beijing Olympics, won the Olympic medal, the fourth Japanese woman to win the Olympic medal. She is, of course, not just a lucky girl. She was able to choose her own path through a number of fateful farewells. Looking back on the 16 days in Beijing.
Relax with friends in the Olympic Village and connect to individual battles
Sakamoto entered Beijing on February 2nd. She arrived at the Olympic Village with Higuchi Wakaba, Kagiyama Yuma, and Shoma Uno to participate in the women's free team competition. The group women's free event in which Sakamoto participates is on the 7th, and the individual competition is on the 15th and 17th. Sakamoto painfully knew the difficulty of adjusting this long waiting period. At the last Pyeongchang Olympics, she suffered from gastroenteritis due to extreme tension after the team battle, and she couldn't explode her natural energy in the individual battle.
Her key is how she can relax away from the competition in the time she spends in the Olympic Village. So Sakamoto brought in a projector and speakers to create an environment where he could watch dramas and movies in the girls' room.
After she entered the field, Higuchi, her first Olympics, was fighting tension. Her triple Axel wasn't working well, and Higuchi asked her what to do with the Axel, which became an outlet for her feelings. In the room, she played Higuchi's favorite drama and watched it together. Then Higuchi performed well with a double Axel in a group women's short and finished second. She laughed, "I'm relaxed with Kao-chan (Sakamoto) spending time with me."
Free, which she is entrusted with, is the last of her eight team performances. Coach Sonoko Nakano puts a cutlet on her, saying, "It's decided by you, a medal," and her heavy responsibility only increases. On the morning of the 7th, I wasn't able to move because of tension, but the pair Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara took second place in the free medals, so the medal was confirmed first.
"The medals that everyone piled up and confirmed. I thought I would just tighten them firmly."
Relieved of her pressure, Sakamoto marked 148.66 points, which set her season's best, with a dashing performance that slipped through her links. She gained her confidence in the individual battle.
Coach Nakano says.
"I was very conscious of the medals of the group, and I was always worried that I wouldn't slip properly because I was the last one. I understand. "
There are no holidays after February 8th. Coach Nakano knew well that there is an adjustment method of taking a rest and bringing the peak again, but Sakamoto's pattern is to keep pushing.
"I never had the idea of taking a rest until the individual battle. Kaori told me to take a rest on the 18th, the day after the women's free time."
"I don't have it. It's reopened!"
Immediately after repartitioning for the individual battle, shocking news came in. Kamila Valieva (ROC) was positive for doping in a December sample. In the team competition, the ranking will be provisional, and the medals will not reach you. There was a lot of daily news about Valieva's participation.From coach Nakano
She said, "Don't worry about others at all. Let's do our best for ourselves and what only Kaori can do," she said every day, and she kept focusing on herself.
On the 13th, a lottery was held in the order of the run. She is informed on the bus on the way home from practice that "Kao-chan, the final run." "I don't have it. I'm too lucky," says Sakamoto. She made no mistakes in the final run of the All Japan Championship Free in December last year, and she laughed, "I think the result is good, so that's the image. It's already reopened."
And the women's short on the 15th. We had a 6-minute practice in the final group with Valieva, Anna Shelvakova, and Alexandra Trusova.
"The fact that I was in the final run made me afraid to skate with the three Russians. In the Grand Prix series (first half of the season), I was only with Trusova, and Shelvakova was also the last in the world championship. When I was strong, the air was different, my knees didn't stop trembling, and my heart rate went up. "
While waiting for her turn, Higuchi, who slipped in the previous group, was found to have an "ambiguous" edge on a three-turn flip. It was recognized as clean in team battles. "Today's technical controllers are a bit strict." Sakamoto, who is fixing the Lutz edge, tightened her mind.
The three-turn Lutz has to be taken out, but if you are not aware of it, it will change to in. But if he is too conscious of the out, he will fail the jump itself.
"If it's an error edge, I can jump 100% (laughs). I wanted to make it perfect, so I rode out until the very end of the step and stopped thinking" Torare ~ ". I jumped thinking that I had to do it with a bee. "
Sakamoto's feelings arrived, and he took off safely at the out edge. 79.84 points for performances that add a plus to all jumps. Trusova fell the triple Axel and was late, so Sakamoto started in 3rd place.
After acting, she shows her new outfit and talks.
"I have a blue stone in my stomach. Professor Nakano said,'Blue is auspicious, so I definitely want you to put it in.'"
At the Olympics, there is a "lucky law" that players in blue costumes win. I felt that this blue stone was connected to the force to push the out edge to the end.
"Let's emulate the spiritual strength of challenging the triple Axel"
Two days later, Free will join the final group with Higuchi. Sakamoto, who had already experienced the pressure of Russia's top three in the short, continued talking to Higuchi while waiting for 6 minutes before and after the practice.
"I'm nervous just being here." "I have no choice but to get used to it." "Shinba is okay if he does what he should do." Originally, the two are the type to talk and relieve tension. He said he was still talking after 6 minutes of practice at the All Japan Championship. In front of Russia's top three in the final group of the Olympics, they relieved each other's tensions.
Higuchi, who slipped first, succeeded in triple axel following the short. With a good result of 214.44, he is in the lead. Kawabe, who was on the 11th run, was also challenging the triple Axel. After this, the three Russian girls who slip will put in multiple quads. I have no big skill. However, I didn't fall into negative thinking there.
"Aina-chan and Shinba both challenged the triple Axel. Let's do our best by emulating that spiritual strength." In that way, I changed my feelings positively.
On the 16th day after I entered Beijing, I was able to objectively see myself as tired. "My goal was to make no mistakes, so I saved a little so that I could keep it until the end. I was practicing to make no mistakes even on a tired day. It was like doing morning training. "
With his perfect performance, he set a personal best of 233.13 points and was placed in second place provisionally. The remaining Shelvakova takes the lead with perfect performance. Perhaps Valieva lost the pressure in the final run, he made a mistake in five jumps without seeing the usual accurate and unrivaled performance, and got a total of 224.09 points. When I found my name in third place on her monitor, her tears flowed endlessly. Coach Nakano hugs me painfully. It was the moment when the fourth Japanese Olympic medalist was born.
Coach Nakano says.
"I'm really lucky. I told you that if you put God on your side, you'll get points. But it was that child's efforts that drew that luck. I'm always trying. Before practice, before anyone else. The appearance of getting on the bus one early and going up made me feel that I wanted to make an effort as much as possible. "
At the press conference the next day, Sakamoto was asked how to get luck on his side and replied:
"Be positive thinking no matter what happens. Convert it to positive no matter what happens, how it goes positive. The rest is tidy. Before going to the game, it's some luck. I think I'm one, and I'm leaving after cleaning my house. "
It was a bronze medal that reflected Sakamoto's pure and sincere way of life.
[This article was jointly planned by the Yahoo! News personal editorial department and the author regarding the content, and was written by the author]