He also mentions retirement… The serious lesion in the figure skating world that caused Masama Uno’s “under-rotation fiasco

Ahead of the Grand Prix Final of figure skating, which will start on December 7 in Beijing, Masama Uno (25, Toyota Motor Corporation), the two-time World Championship men’s champion, has made a controversial comment.

It all started during the men’s free skate at the NHK Cup, the sixth round of the GP series. Uno, who trails short program leader Yuma Kagiyama (20, Oriental Bio/Chukyo Univ.) by 5.31 points, landed three types of quadruple jumps (loops, flips, and toeloops), but each jump was given a “q,” indicating a quarter of a turn short.

He scored 186.35 points, the highest in the free skate, but was 1.84 points behind Kagiyama in second place in the total score. In an interview with the broadcaster immediately after her performance, she said, “I have many feelings. I’m afraid I’m going to say something unnecessary, so I’m going to shut up now and go home,” she said, trying to suppress her emotions.

Let us take a look back at Uno’s performance on the day of the competition.

She was the 11th skater to go to the center of the rink, leaving Kagiyama on the last run. The quadruple loop and quad flip, which she had missed two weeks ago at the GP4 Cup of China, were skated smoothly after landing on the ice, and the mid-step was also sharp and sharp.

Her step in the middle part was also sharp and marked Level 4, the highest difficulty level. In the second half, she landed a quadruple-triple toeloop, and although her single quadruple toeloop turned into a double toeloop, she handled it calmly, and changed her next jump to a quadruple-two-rotate toeloop to wrap up her performance.

Uno’s white teeth burst out as the piece came to an end. He received a standing ovation, and the performance was enough to predict his first 200+ point performance of the season. But the result was too much to take in.

Not only the jumps, but also the connections and steps were not bad. I thought I could get a pretty good score,” said Uno confidently, but his face clouded when he saw the scores on the kiss-and-cry monitor. I guess I got an under-rotation. He returned to the backyard calmly, but when he checked the details of the scoring, he was astonished to find that the judgment was much harsher than he had expected.

I thought I jumped pretty well. I thought I jumped pretty well, but I got under-rotated on all the quadruple jumps I jumped, so I knew I couldn’t do it. I could understand if I had been taken off for a failed jump, but I thought it would be tough on COPY00.

In the real-time scores displayed during the live TV broadcast, Uno’s quadruple loop had a GOE of 3.30 points, and her quadruple flip had a GOE of 2.99 points, both high marks. Takeshi Honda, 4th place at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, who was commentating on TV, said, “It was also good because of the flow,” but after checking the slow replay, he judged “q,” and the 9 judges evaluating GOE deducted “minus 2” or more points, according to the rules. In the end, the GOE of both jumps was 0, which was a big reason for the low score.

I am again thinking that today’s performance was really good, and I am wondering what more I can do to improve. I think everyone’s reaction is, “If you don’t want to score that much, you should be doing shows, not competitions,” and I agree with them. It is probably difficult to do better than today’s jumps, so I think it is possible to retire from competition.

Uno’s mention of her retirement after her performance shows the extent of the shock she felt.

The evaluation of under-rotation of jumps has been discussed many times in the past. Uno’s quadruple jump, in which she turns her right ankle as she lands on the ice, has been recognized as a quad and given a high GOE rating.

A well-known coach who has produced Olympians in the past said , “The flip could have been considered q if you look hard enough, but there was no room for the loop to be considered as under-rotated.

Uno said, “Scores are given by people, so I think it is up to each individual, and I am not going to say what the score is or what the rules are,” but the problem is that many athletes were judged severely as under-rotated at the NHK Cup.

The coach mentioned above said that the third round of the GP series, the Cup of France, “was the most lenient in judging under -rotation. Skate America also had relatively lenient standards, “If we want to be strict, we will be strict; if we want to be lenient, we will be lenient. If the rules are set strictly, we practice according to them. The fact that the standards change from competition to competition and judge to judge makes it difficult for both the athletes and the instructors.

It is forbidden to ask the technical panel, which judges jumps and other moves, the reason for the decision. Uno, who should know this, said, “It’s not really up to us to decide the rules, so I’d like to ask them how they want to direct (the judges),” which sounded as sarcastic as possible.

The athletes cannot afford to have their techniques, which they have mastered after tens of thousands of jumps, suddenly denied. I would like the judges to think once again that consistent judging, not based on likes or dislikes, will mature the competition and give excitement to those who watch.