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When Mao Asada successfully landed her triple axel in the women's figure skating singles freestyle program Feb. 20 at the Sochi Games, it pushed up the number of her 3-1/2-rotation Olympic successes to four. She had thrice made the jump four years earlier in Vancouver, Canada.
But due to a spill one day earlier, Asada finished the the short program in 16th place. In the end, she was able to move up to sixth place overall with a score of 142.71, her new personal best, in the freestyle program.
Mao Asada performs her freestyle program very expressively in Sochi.
Shortly after she finished her freestyle performance, tears began welling in her eyes. She pursed her lips and held back those tears. "I have shown everything I rebuilt from scratch over the four years since the Vancouver Olympics," Asada said. "I was able to present my best performance."
After Vancouver, she hired a new coach, Nobuo Sato, 72, a World Figure Skating Hall of Fame member, who helped her tear down her techniques, then put them back together again.
"At first everything was new to me," Asada said. "I tried but couldn't do it."
The two-time world championship and Olympic silver medalist was putting all her glories behind; it was a tough go.
One thing Asada corrected was her habit of moving her shoulders up and down before making a jump. The goal was a more fluid jump. It would be achieved by adding speed to the approach run. "That would increase the height of her jumps and the speed of her spins," Sato said.
But this kind of power does not come easy, even to an Olympic medalist. During her first two seasons under Sato, Asada could not finish higher than sixth place at the World Figure Skating Championships.
Tears well up in Asada's eyes shortly after finishing her freestyle program. © Kyodo
After the 2012 competition, "I wanted to be away from skating for the first time," Asada said.
She did not return to the rink ... for two weeks. A short period, yes, but the longest such stretch in her life.
Things began to change during Asada's third year under Sato. "I began to understand what Mr. Sato was trying to explain," she said. "And his lessons gradually began to take hold in my muscle memory."
While Asada, Sato said, "often seemed to have no clue at first, day by day she began to understand what I was trying to say."
She went on a winning streak during the 2012-2013 season. Her program component score, which had mostly remained in the 7 range, edged above 8. She also reincorporated the triple axel, her trademark jump, into her performances. By the 2013-2014 season, Asada said, "every single one of my skating techniques had been changed."
When skaters make a regular jump, they do so while looking backward. When they perform an axel, they look forward, which results in an extra one-half turn. The triple axel is regarded as the most difficult among the triple jumps.
Asada and Coach Nobuo Sato, 72, are all smiles after Asada's freestyle performance. © Kyodo
While her scores were improving, Asada was still having difficulty remastering triple axels, and her struggle continued until the Sochi Olympics. A fall on her triple axel in the short program on Feb. 19 cost her dearly, taking her out of medal contention. But she gained extra points for the first time in the current season by landing all six kinds of triple jumps in the following day's freestyle program.
"The triple axel has been her dream," Sato said. "I believe there was some criticism (over my decision) to let her hold on to it, to never give up on it ... to let her perform the triple axel."
In the end, Asada's perseverance allowed her to successfully land a triple axel at a second Olympics in a row.
"I want to say to her," Sato said, "'Great job.'" |
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