<h2></h2>
<figure id="attachment_396671" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396671" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8cfeca23"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/22eb6ab9461a6cd3707454119339505d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396671" class="wp-caption-text">Shinba Higuchi wins her first GP series title</figcaption></figure>
<h2> The &#8220;Girl Genius&#8221; makes a comeback!</h2>
<p> The Grand Prix (GP) series, which marks the start of the figure skating season in earnest, began its first round, Skate America, on October 18. This season is the pre-season for the &#8217;26 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina d&#8217;Ampezzo. A hot competition on the ice is expected in anticipation of the big competition in about one year and three months.</p>
<p> In Skate America, the pair of Rirai Miura (22) and Ryuichi Kihara (32), winners of the 2011 World Championships, won their first international championship in a year and seven months, while 19-year-old Yoshio Miura (Oriental Bio, Meiji Univ.) took third place in the men&#8217;s single competition, standing on the podium.</p>
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<p> Among the Japanese skaters, 23-year-old Shinba Higuchi (Wakaba, Noevir) shined brightly. She has been competing in the GP Series since the 2004 season, and this was her ninth year and 14th race, and her first win. It was a brilliant comeback for the former &#8220;girl prodigy,&#8221; who once took a break after contributing to the team silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Beijing, contemplating retirement.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I never thought I would be able to win this competition for the first time today,&#8221; she said. I was really surprised. I guess it&#8217;s a reward for all the practice I&#8217;ve put in.</span></p>
<p> As she said after the match, her full &#8220;shinba smile&#8221; was reflected on the silver screen.</p>
<p> She was able to complete this season&#8217;s short program (SP), which featured music from the science fiction movie &#8220;Dune: Planet of the Sand,&#8221; and made a brilliant comeback in the FS, where she finished 4th, 2.31 points behind Isabeau Levito (USA), who finished 2nd in last season&#8217;s World Championships.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I&#8217;m so happy. So surprised.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> At the press conference after the awards ceremony, Higuchi expressed her joy in English, and then analyzed the factors behind her first win.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I have been practicing to skate with confidence, even if I made a mistake in the middle of the program, so that I could skate with a comfortable margin from the beginning to the end, both in the short program and the free skate. That is one of the first things that I was able to do in today&#8217;s competition. The rest, I think, is about 70% luck.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Personal growth that attracted luck."></div>
<figure id="attachment_396672" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-396672" style="width: 3632px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b8e718b6"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/10/56316cb3e6de6e86e3bbdc921b9e3436.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-396672" class="wp-caption-text">Higuchi to make a splash at the Beijing &#8217;22 Olympics</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Higuchi embodied his &#8220;all-out effort to the end</h2>
<p> In the beginning of FS, his Lutz-ToLoop, which he was going for triple-triple jumps, turned out to be a triple-two-rotation. In the second half of the competition, where she was supposed to have three triple jumps in a row, but her first triple Lutz was not executed correctly, resulting in a single jump. As she said, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;It was not a perfect performance at all,&#8221;</span> but it was her recovery from that moment that brought her &#8220;70% luck.</p>
<p> In the last part of the race, she succeeded in three jumps in a row, including a triple loop, a double axel, and a double toeloop, and in the last jump, a triple flip, she considered using a combination jump, but after consulting with her physical strength, she chose a single jump <span class="strongInContent">, &#8220;Better to come down clean than to fail</span>. He made it brilliantly, and gained some points for his performance.</p>
<p> She has been working on her spin and step, all of which were awarded Level 4, the highest level of difficulty, as a result of her early preparation, including participating in regional competitions in Japan since the end of June. In terms of expression, she fully demonstrated the detailed and highly original choreo sequence of &#8220;Nature Boy,&#8221; created by the famous choreographer Shailene Bourne, to the great delight of her discerning American fans. She embodied this season&#8217;s theme of &#8220;giving it your all until the end,&#8221; and said that she <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;felt her growth,&#8221; a</span> definite response to her performance.</p>
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<p> When the top three skaters in the short program failed to improve their scores, and Higuchi was declared the winner, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;What?</span> echoed in the back of the hall. She was standing in the center of the podium for the first time in the GP series, where her best finish was second place.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I wasn&#8217;t used to it at all,&#8221; he said. I had always heard the Kimigayo as if I was an afterthought (from another Japanese competitor), so it was refreshing to hear it as my own result.</span></p>
<p> He smiled.</p>
<p> Please refer to the second part of the article, &#8220;Will you come to practice tomorrow? In the second part of the article, &#8220;[Will you come to practice tomorrow?</p>
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<p> In the second part of the article, <a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/396675">&#8220;Will you come to practice tomorrow? Shinba Higuchi&#8217;s &#8220;mentor&#8221; who saved her from burnout&#8221;</a>.</p>
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 Daichi Hadano

 Kyodo News (1st photo) Japan Magazine Publishers Association (2nd photo)

 At Skate America, the opening round of the GP Series, where Japanese skaters were outstanding, it was 23-year-old Shinba Higuchi (Noevir) who shone brightly. What was the evolution behind the crown?

The “new strategy” that led Shinba Higuchi to her first GP Series victory with a stunning comeback.

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