World Queen Kaori Sakamoto stopped blinking… Tomoko Miyahara’s “miraculous one-day return to active duty” was amazing.

Her skating, which draws the viewers into the “world of the story,” has become even more amazing.

Tomoko Miyahara (25), who placed fourth in the women’s figure skating competition at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, made a one-day return to competition at the Japan Open, a team competition among Japan, Europe, and North America, held at Saitama Super Arena on October 7.

Since her retirement last March, Miyahara has been active as a professional skater, becoming the first Japanese to participate in the international tour of “STARS ON ICE,” an ice show featuring only top skaters.

The “Japan Open,” in which she competed this time, is a mixed pro-am competition in which each team consists of two male and two female skaters competing only in the free skate. Since she decided to compete, Miyahara has been working on her jumps at a rapid pace, trying to get back to competition level. It has already been more than a year and a half since she retired from the front line.

She said, “The amount of practice has decreased since I quit the active duty. The type of programs (for shows) has changed, so getting in shape has been the hardest part,” said Miyahara.

Miyahara spoke of the hardships she faced.

As she said before the competition, “I hope I can make a difference in the way I present myself as a professional,” Miyahara danced “Romeo and Juliet,” with its theme of “love, passion, and destiny,” with rich emotion and splendor.

Her uncompromising attitude from her days as an active dancer remained unchanged. After being escorted to the center of the rink by her coach Stéphane Rambière (38), the former world champion and choreographer of this performance, Miyahara landed a series of triple jumps from a triple Lutz at the beginning of her performance with aplomb. Her precise edge work and her skating, as crisp and powerful as the solemn music, were indeed outstanding. As she had intended, she grabbed the hearts of 4,000 spectators with her choreo sequence at the end, and finally, she lay down on the ice to express Juliet’s suicide. It was an intense four minutes.

I went into the competition thinking that I would only do what I could do, piece by piece. I think I accomplished that.

Miyahara said after the competition. She had some under-rotations on some jumps, but no falls, and she put together an excellent piece of work, scoring 123.22 points, which is a great achievement for the competition. It was a great performance in the competition as well. This was proven by her friends who were watching her closely.