Translation: Kanako MURAKAMI official retirement message
Today, I, Kanako Murakami, have decided to retire from figure skating after 19 years of competing.
Although it’s been 3 years since Sochi Olympics, I haven’t been able to leave the results I expected to leave and it made every day very hard on me. As for last season, I couldn’t get to the results I wanted no matter how much I practiced hard. Sometimes, I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing all this for. But I had a strong determination that I couldn’t end this the way it was and that’s what kept me going until now. Before last year’s nationals, I set my heart on doing a satisfying performance that could also be my last one. Since then, I thought a lot about what is a satisfying performance for me. As a result, after speaking to my coaches, I felt the importance of skating in a way that would remain in the hearts of the people who came to watch, even if that required lowering the level of my jumping passes, which was a regretful decision as an athlete. Then, I concentrated on training while keeping in mind that objective. After the competition, a lot of people congratulated me by telling me “It was great!!” and mostly, I saw my coaches being happy for the first time in a while and that filled my heart.
Since then, it felt like a string that was under pressure let go. I thought “... let’s end here” from the bottom of my heart and I made the decision of retiring. When I think about it, my skating career had a lot of ups and downs, and I caused a lot of trouble for the ones supporting me. I am very sorry about that. But all your rooting has been a big support for me, and moreover, my biggest motivation. I am so thankful, I don’t know how to express it in words. Thank you so much for all your support until now. From now on, I want to be involved with figure skating in many other ways. I will work hard as an adult part of the society so people can support the new Kanako Murakami. Please take care of me from now on too.
Murakami Kanako
Original hand written letter scan from her official web site.
