Paris Olympics Gold Medalist Akari Fujinami Becomes an Apprentice at a Sushi Restaurant! The truth is, I was afraid of the Olympics.

At a sushi restaurant in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, not far from the Nihon University of Health and Sport Sciences, where she attends school. Akari Fujinami, 20, a gold medalist in the 53kg women’s wrestling event at the Paris Olympics, took a bite of the big fatty tuna offered to her by the owner.

It melted! It’s really delicious. I am from Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, and I love sushi, but it is hard for me to eat raw fish before a competition or even during weight loss. After the Olympics, I was taken to various sushi restaurants to celebrate, but the chefs always made the rice bigger, perhaps because I was an athlete. After all, the best sushi is the Edo-mae style, where the rice is small.

After finishing a portion in no time, the chef asked me if I wanted to try nigiri. Fujinami smiled and said, “I’ve always wanted to try nigiri.

Wearing a white coat with the restaurant’s name on it, Fujinami was taught by the chef how to grip the chutoro (medium fatty tuna). His behavior was well organized.

Hey, wait for me!

The nigiri he happily presented to us had a little too much wasabi, but we were happy to oblige him.

She was born to parents who run a wrestling school, and since the age of four, her life has been all about wrestling. Her life will continue to be with wrestling. Therefore, a little “work experience” is fresh and exciting for her at this early age.

Just before she left for Paris, Fujinami watched on TV as her senior at the same university, Abe Uta (24), a women’s 52kg judo competitor, lost in the second round and broke down in tears as soon as she stepped off the tatami mat. Fujinami, who is close to Uta and is expected to win the gold medal as a matter of course, recalls, “At that time, I felt scared of the Olympics for the first time.

It was an unusual stage, and I realized how tough it is to win.

When Fujinami arrived in Paris, he saw the beautiful cityscape of Paris, just as he had envisioned before leaving the country.

Before the Olympics, I watched “Emily Goes to Paris” on Netflix to get myself in the mood. It was fun just to take a walk, and the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower that I saw from the bus from the athletes’ village to the venue …… were sparkling and just as I had imagined.”

The two-day wrestling competition for each weight class will be held on the morning of both days, with weigh-ins held on the morning of each day. Since the weigh-ins are not held the day before the competition, the competitors have to compete at almost the same weight as the day before the competition. Therefore, in Fujinami’s case, weight loss starts two months prior to the weigh-in, and he takes time to build up his body weight to 53kg, which he can move around at any time.

Fujinami said, “When it is time to lose weight, I am in the zone, so I do not feel so much stress. But I always have yakiniku as my last supper before weight loss. And it’s also the first place I rush to after winning a match. I have a lot of routines like this for my matches.

She always gets her hair cut at a hair salon before a match to get into the mood, and she eats sekihan (red rice) the night before a match while watching her weight.

I also bring my own alfa rice with me to matches overseas,” he said. On the morning of the match, he always showers and always puts on his socks and any shoes starting with his left foot. Since his first year of high school, he has always worn bear print underwear on match days and has never lost a match. However, the underwear was getting tired, so I took the opportunity of the Olympics to say goodbye to it in Paris.

Many athletes have a specific routine that they follow as a way to get into the Games. However, many athletes say that if they have too many decisions to make before a competition, they become anxious when they can’t do them, and it distracts their concentration.

But in my case, I can’t stop what I have been doing for a long time (laughs). (Laughs.) Besides, I find it more distracting to have so many things to do while I’m losing weight.

There is a later story about the underwear they parted with. After the news broke, Fujinami received a pair of the same underwear from the distributor.

The Fear of Losing.”

Just before the match, she had a strange experience. Two weeks before the match, her ears suddenly became swollen and swollen like the swollen ears of a gizzard, as is typical of wrestlers.

In hindsight, I think it may have been due to the fact that her ears often touched her opponents’ feet as she practiced the new techniques she had prepared for the Olympics, but it was a bit of a surprise because it was so sudden,” she said.

A number of routines brought calmness to Fujinami on the mat at the Olympics. He put the mouthpiece on his mouth as usual, and controlled his opponent with fast tackles as usual. In the final, Fujinami won 10-0 against Ecuador’s Jepes Guzman, who had struggled at last year’s World Championships.

I have never studied any particular wrestler in the tournaments I have competed in,” said Guzman. I knew that if I kept to my wrestling style, I would never lose. That’s what I thought. However, the Olympics is a competition where losing is absolutely unacceptable. I had struggled in my previous competition, so I made sure to prepare for the competition.

When the victory was decided, he was the first to jump on his father, Shunichi, who was accompanying him as a coach. He climbed up onto the bleachers, hugged his mother and grandmother, and shared his joy.

I used to picture myself carrying my father on my shoulders after winning the gold medal,” he said. But going into Paris, I had no idea what I would do after I fulfilled my dream. I just went with my instincts, and that’s how it turned out (laughs).”

The highlight of the competition was when Fujinami looked lovingly at the medal on her neck at the awards ceremony.

Fujinami said, “I always say that I don’t care about the record of consecutive wins, but I think I have more fear of losing than anyone else. But I also think that having that kind of feeling makes you a stronger athlete. I myself have not been changed by the gold medal, but the reaction of the people around me is different. It is in times like this (when I am pampered) that I must be humble and not lose sight of myself. Otherwise, I won’t be able to win back-to-back championships in Los Angeles in four years and Brisbane the year after that.

After eating two servings of sushi, Fujinami let an elderly couple who visited the restaurant touch his gold medal. Fujinami gave a warm look to the elderly couple, who were so happy that they even said, “I want to keep it as a souvenir for the rest of my life.

From the November 22/29 , 2024 issue of“ FRIDAY