Silver medal in his first appearance! The source of Yuma Kagiyama’s strength, as revealed by his mentor

Yuma Kagiyama (18) won the silver medal with a magnificent performance that was hard to believe he was competing for the first time.

In the Men’s Figure Skating Short Program for the Beijing Olympics held on August 8, Kagiyama chose “When You’re Smiling” by American singer Michael Buble, and he performed a quadruple salchow, a series of quadruple and triple toeloops, a triple axel, and other jumps perfectly. With a high score of 108.12, she came in second place.

At the press conference after the short, Kagiyama said, “If I don’t enjoy it, I’ll lose it. （It’s my first time (in the Olympics), so I want to enjoy everything. True to his words, in the free skate on the 10th, he showed a dynamic performance with speed, matching the rhythm of “Gladiator” without effort. He landed a quad salcoh at the beginning, then followed it up with a quad loop, then a quad toeloop, for a total score of 310.05 points, his best ever. The momentum carried him to the podium.

Despite his imposing appearance on the ice, Kagiyama is said to be a shy boy in person. His teacher, Seiki Matsushita, who is the coach of the Eisa International High School skating team, recalled, “His attitude in class was quite normal.

His attitude in class is quite normal. He says, ‘I don’t want to stand out at school. He’s an athlete on the rink, but at school he’s just a normal kid (laughs). (laughs) He’s also an excellent student.

For Kagiyama, a podium finish at the Olympics was a long-held dream, which he had worked toward with his father, coach Masakazu. Coach Masakazu competed in the 1992 Albertville Olympics and the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, finishing 12th in both events. He finished 12th. Kagiyama said, “I want to do better than my father, and give an inspiring performance to show my filial piety. The source of the young silver medalist’s strength lies in the fact that he has been following his father’s footsteps,” Matsushita said.

I’ve known him since he entered high school, and he’s always said he wanted to win the Inter-High School Championship. I thought it would be a good idea for him to win the Inter-High School Championship, since he was already at a level where he could participate in senior competitions from his second year in high school. But he insisted, saying, ‘I want to win the tournament that my father won.

When he actually entered the competition, he had a lot of trouble with the music stopping and falling down. Although he ended up winning, I remember he was quite disappointed. Seeing his greed for any title and his regret for failure, I knew that he would grow into a world-class athlete in these three years. Compared to Hanyu and Uno, he is not as spectacular. But I think he is second to none in terms of the certainty of his individual skills and his solid performance.

Kagiyama’s story has only just begun.