Silver Medalist Yuma Kagiyama’s Blueprint to Surpass Shoma Uno by Enhancing His Expressive Power

On July 8, the All-Japan Figure Skating Training Camp was opened to the press at the Kanku Ice Arena (Izumisano City, Osaka Prefecture). What stood out was the performance of Yuma Kagiyama (20, Oriental Bio/Chukyo Univ.), a men’s silver medalist at the Beijing Winter Olympics, who is aiming for a comeback from a left ankle injury.

Despite concerns about the impact of his injury on his jumps, he performed a spectacular quadruple salcoe, and his technique, described as “cat-leg landing,” utilizing the softness in his knees inherited from his father, who has competed in two Olympic Games, was also in good shape. Both “Believer” (SP) and “Rain, In Your Black Eyes” (FS) are continued from last season, but the expressive power has been polished so much that some people concerned said , “It doesn’t look like the same performance,” which foreshadowed his comeback from last season, when he couldn’t compete in international competitions.

The press naturally focused their attention on Kagiyama in the rink, where the top skaters such as Yoshio Miura (18, Oriental Bio/Meguro Nichidai High School), winner of the Four Continents Championships and World Junior Championships last season, and Kota Yamamoto (23, Chukyo University), runner-up in the Grand Prix Final, were all gathered.

He accelerated his skating movements as if warming up his body slowly, and when the announcement was made, “SP ‘Believer’ will be performed,” the audience was hyped  In the first half of the program, he performed a sharp triple axel (triple jump), and in the second half, he tightened up the program with his free and easy expression, stepping lightly to the male vocalist’s voice. Keyama, who showed the difference from last season, when he was all-out vigor, said, “In the short program, I added power to my performance, and I was able to show my ability to compete.”

In the short program, I added power and softness. When I listened to the lyrics, I didn’t feel like I had to be strong all the time, so I wanted to perform the program with energy and balance, while being conscious of being relax.