Interview with Yuzuru Hanyu
This (x) was my original post, here is the translation!
Yuzuru Hanyu was interviewed by Tatjana Flade for the German magazine pirouette in the issue May/June 2017 No.5 (Yuzuru Hanyu = YH)
Question: How do you review your season? There were a lot of highlights, but also some disappointments.
YH: When I think about the 4Lo (Rittberger), It was very suscessful. I tried it (4Lo) for the first time in competition and I think I landed it seven times in the LP and only popped it once at Skate Canada. I am pleased with the Loop, but the (quad) Salchow was a problem this season. After the two month break due to the injury at the beginning of I feared the quad Toeloop. But in the end I did two 4Ts in the LP and I gained a lot of selfconfidence. At Worlds I could accomplish everything I wanted in my LP and this was a complete success.
Q: What is the most important experience that you will take to the next olympic season?
YH: I don’t plan to change my jump content for the next season. I tried different jumps this season and now I have the selfconfidence that I can execute them well and that I can get a lot of points for the execution. My experience was what I was expecting from this season and this is what i got in the end.
Q: How do you deal with disappointments such as the SP from the WTT, where you placed only 7th after two mistakes?
YH: I talk about it with different people, but in the end I mostly think about it myself. After the SP I could barely sleep, I woke up a lot of times at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning. I had to think about how I looked on the ice and what the audience in the television must have seen there. Then I thought about putting 5 quads in my LP. At Worlds I was 10 points behind (the leader) after the SP and here 20 points. When you skate the feeling is important and I am the olnly one who knows that feeling and in t he end I need to make the decisions on my own. I decided right before the LP that I really want to go for 5 quads. Not because I failed at the SP but because I wanted to do it.
Q: What did you gain from the World Team Trophy?
YH: After Worlds I prepared myself well and trained hard for this team competition. I felt good in the training and I had a lot of selfconfidence before the SP. But I think it was too much pressure and I expected too much from myself. I thought I can deal with the pressure but I could not show a good performance in the SP. I need to take some time and analyze what the problem with the SP is because I slowly get a negative impression of the SP in general. Before the LP the expectation was high, that I could repeat what I have done at the World Championships. I tried the 4T-1Lo-3S for the first time, it was not perfect but I am satisfied with it. I showed 3 quads in the second half of the program for the first time and maybe I am the first skater to ever do this. This is positive especially in regard at the upcoming Olympic season. I had energy left for this, but I still need to work on becoming stronger ,physically and mentally. To be honest overall I had a lot of fun at this competition and it was the first time in along while that I was able to enjoy a competition.
Q: What kind of programs do you want to show in the Olympic Season?
YH: I haven’t decided yet about the music for the next season. In this season I wanted to challenge myself and in this sense the season was very successful for me. The experiences that I gained this season will hopefully have a positive effect on the next season. The good thing about that is that I can show two different skating styles in the SP and in the LP. This is something I want to repeat in the next season. I am not yure yet if I will have 5 quads in my program from the beginning of the season but this would be a possible challenge. I want to have different options for difficult combinations. Yes, maybe I need to jump a lot of different types of quads, but I don’t want to change a lot in the composition of the programs. I think about the grades of execution (GOEs) for the elements, but I especially want to succeed in expressing in my programs what I want to express. Especially because of the (technical)challenges I set for myself this season, I think that I can improve my programs even more.
Q: What do you think about the rising level of the other skaters? In the past you said that you wanted to retire after 2018, what do you think about this now?
YH: Just because the competition is now on such a high level, training is a lot of fun and the motivation increased. Without a comment on retirement, I can say that I am very happy to skate now.
Q: When you step on the ice the arena turns upside down, you see an ocean of Japanese flags, you hear the cheer from the fans. What do you feel in this moment?
YH: Happiness (laughter). People from all around the world not only look at me, they watch all the skaters and I am happy that I can be one of these skaters. I am happy if somebody saw me and then becomes a figure skating fan and when new fans join. It makes me happy when children start skating, after they watched us. Even a few adults start figure skating.
Q: Thank you for the interview and good luck for next season!
Big thank you @seobiiiiieluv for correcting my translation!
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