Last chapter of his autobiography, Aoi Hono II.
–World Championships 2016–
1st time in my life that I read a book’s last chapter first. I have translated the main parts. First part on his injury is paraphrased. After that is proper translation of parts.
About his injury– briefly summarised by me from his direct speech:
It started as a discomfort at the end of October, just before Skate Canada. There was numbness when he jumped toeloops. But it went away after 3 or 4 jumps. He gave it some care but did not see it as major because it went away with more movement. At NHK Trophy, it had become a pain and got worse over time and was pretty bad at Nationals (Dec).
After Nationals, he rested for 10 days, and then he did ‘NHK Trophy Special Exhibition’ (Jan 9, Morioka) and then ‘New Year On Ice’ (Jan 16, 17, Osaka).
[My own notes about these 2 ice shows from past articles I had saved:
1) NHK Special Ex– This show was hosted by NHK and proceeds were donated to the Tohoku Earthquake reconstruction efforts.
2) NYOI– 17 January is the anniversary date of the Great Hanshin Earthquake (also known as the Kobe earthquake) which happened 21 years ago. 21 year-old Yuzuru Hanyu skated ‘The Final Time Traveler’ which is the song written specially for the Hanshin earthquake.]
Before ‘New Year On Ice’, he went to the hospital and had a steroid injection and also took painkillers. After the show, he rested totally for 10 days, but after that, the pain was still there.
At its peak, even walking was painful. The inside of his big toe hurt so much that he started to walk with his ankle turned out. Because of walking in this strange way, other places started to hurt as well.
At the end of Jan, even though it was painful, he could still do the salchow. But soon, he was falling on more and more jumps. It was most painful for the toeloop, then later, there was also pain for the axel, salchow and flip. Only the loop was not painful, so he practised a lot of that and thought of adding a quad loop at Worlds. But in the end, he was falling even on the triple loop. Mid-February, he thought he had to withdraw from Worlds and was in despair.
He had planned to go to Toronto at the end of January but because of the pain, he only went back there at the end of February. It started to get better bit by bit with treatment in Toronto. Except for toeloops, all the other jumps started to come back and his “can-do” spirit also returned. The doctor that was treating him ordered a “toeloop ban” on him, so for 3 weeks he just practised with the other jumps. 2 weeks before Worlds, he did the quad toe for the first time and managed to jump it in a day, only the feeling was a bit different.
Although the pain still remained, his jumps had returned and he was in good spirits.
March 27, he arrived in Boston. The next day was the first practice.
“The 1st day’s practice was good. But from the 2nd day’s practice, my body did not work well. [.…] Even when I took a painkiller, the pain in my left foot was still there. And my lower back started to hurt. Within that anxiety, there was a matter with another skater. As such, it was a mess inside my head. Various kinds of stress arose and I knew very well that my mental state was dragged away in a different direction. A short program that “there’s no way you can do it in this condition”, but it was clean. (laughs)”
His SP score was 110.56, only 0.39 points short of his own world record at GPF. However, after the SP, his foot got worse and swelled up.
“Before the practice on the day of the free programme, I took a painkiller and confirmed that I could jump a quad toeloop even though it’s painful. Because my adrenaline was still running, I was in a constant state of excitement, and those 2 nights before the free, I could not sleep.”
When he drew turns for the FP at Worlds and he got 2nd to skate, he thought, “ah, I, am finished.” Because he has not had much experience of having good results with 2nd to skate. He has not yet found a good rhythm for skating 2nd.
His mind and body was not yet put in order and he faced the free skate. […..]
“World Championship was really hard. Between the short and the free, the temperature was about 10 degrees different and the ice was melting, but people who can jump, can jump. My body was not in a condition to adapt to all kinds of ice, my mental state was also fluctuating all the time.”
“Being 2nd at World Championships, last year I was so regretful and felt very gloomy about it. This year (about a month before Worlds), I kept dreaming about being 2nd in various competitions (laugh), there was not a single dream where I was first. So, when Worlds ended, even though I was really regretful, my mood was refreshed.
Thinking about it again, for last season (2014-2015), what I achieved was I recovered from my injuries (from CoC) and I was restored; that is the impression I have in my mind. This season, I got world record scores, and for the first time, I gave something perfect from within myself at a competition. It’s an important season that gave me a sense of accomplishment.
And also, my exhibition was good. I could put a lot of my feelings into it. The period before this Worlds, I did a lot of polishing on areas related to expression. Because of the pain in my foot, on-ice training was limited. So I practised on land, things like hand movement, ways of putting in emotions, the direction of the legs. For the ‘Requiem of Heaven and Earth’ at Worlds, I could put my feelings into it very well, my body and feelings were in harmony, and I was also one with the music. I finished the performance feeling refreshed.”
During practice for the exhibition, “Ahhh, if I skate this way, it is good,” he found a suitable way to skate on that ice and the skating felt good.
“Although in the end it took about 2 months, at that point in time before Worlds, it was decided that ‘due to the condition of my foot, I will not skate for one month after the competition ends’. ‘Must stay away from skating totally’. As such, with the thought that I cannot skate for one month from now, it was an exhibition where I really felt the joy and pleasure of skating.” […..]
“I think I first skated ‘Requiem of Heaven and Earth’ at Fantasy On Ice in Kanazawa. Many voices said “the Requiem at that time was so painful, it was heart-breaking”.
In fact, I had cried in practice, it was too painful. Especially when I was trying to link with the music completely, the moment I listened to the music, images of the disaster floated to mind…… I felt as if the pain at that time was depicted through me, it was very painful.” [……]
“ ‘My own happiness, it’s in skating’, ‘Skating is the only joy’, there were times when I thought to that extent. At the start of January, my foot was in pain, and added to that, there were false news reports which made me rather distrustful of people.
[My own note: one terrible gossip mag said he was getting married and rumours spread.]
Because of this situation, I was very happy that I could skate in a show. Skating is something done only by my own will. It is a place where no one else can interfere. At that time, I thought about many things. As such, it’s a program with deep meaning for me, ‘Requiem of Heaven and Earth’.”
He talked about this recent season’s skating and jumps in the men’s field, and ended this part by saying he almost did a quad axel at Dreams On Ice and he is still studying how to do it. And “there are no quint jumps yet, but maybe Boyang might be able to do them. (laugh)”
“For men’s figure skating, now is the hottest period, isn’t it? For me, Salt Lake City was still the best Olympics and it was the trigger that started me thinking seriously that “I want to skate!”. In a certain meaning, that kind of time has come again, or it has become that kind of flow and I myself am in it. I am so happy. Until Pyeongchang, how much can I evolve, that will be my challenge from now. I am looking forward to it.”
[this is his last quote in this chapter]
Translated by me (not in full, some parts are left out).
There is a short epilogue which I will read only when I have finished reading the whole book (and not just the last chapter). ^^
Photos are all from the book.
areudirty
stormborns
origamiaround
discoholicmusic
dailybridgerton
jimmyeatworldofficial
romaincrisis
