Originally posted on July 5, 2019.
This chapter was first published on March 23, 2019.
It discusses the true reason Rika Kihira shocked the world, the clear difference between her successful and failed triple Axels, and the kind of coaching and program structure needed to lead her to become the overwhelming absolute queen heading toward the Beijing Olympics.
Referring as well to the evaluations of Miki Ando and Patrick Chan, it argues what is necessary to make the fullest use of Kihira’s natural gifts, while also delivering sharp criticism of her choreographer and coaching team.

2019-07-05
Only Yuzuru Hanyu can rival the beauty of Kihira’s triple Axel. That is how absolute a queen Kihira is.

This was the chapter I posted on 2019-03-23 under the title, “They do not understand at all why Rika Kihira shocked the world.”
The chapter I posted as NEW! on 2019-03-22 23:00:55 under the title, “Her body sinks more deeply and the angle of the left leg at takeoff becomes deeper… this is exactly the same as when Mao Asada fails,” has entered the official hashtag ranking, with Mao Asada at No. 13.
In figure skating, the one who dominates the rink becomes the champion.
Arakawa won the gold medal in Turin because at that time she was the one dominating the rink.
Tara Lipinski won the gold medal in Nagano by defeating Michelle Kwan, who at that time was the best in the world at dominating the rink… because from beginning to end Lipinski kept springing like a rubber ball, dominated the rink with a performance that clearly surpassed Kwan in speed, and won the gold medal.
Rika Kihira’s coaching staff must realize that among all figure skaters so far, she has the greatest athletic ability and the most exquisitely balanced beautiful body… that as an athlete her beauty is the greatest in history, and they should coach her in such a way that she always dominates the rink.
They must understand that Rika Kihira is the greatest figure skater in history… mere Spartan severity is utterly out of the question…
From practice onward… they should film her successful and failed jumps with a smartphone and have her practice while showing them to her.
In this, they should learn from Yamagata, who continues training entirely alone with nothing but a smartphone as his only tool, and who is now the fastest and strongest man in the men’s 100 meters. … Incidentally, if anyone surpasses Yamagata, I think it will be Abdul Hakim Sani Brown.
What does Kihira possess… At one time, I happened to cross paths with Miki Ando at very close range in the concourse of Shin-Osaka Station… and I sensed from her an aura I never could have imagined from only watching her performances on television.
Part of it may have been the strength that came from having borne a child and become a mother.
But the power of her gaze was extraordinary.
The comment she made about Rika Kihira, who had entered the senior ranks and was winning one international competition after another, was exactly the same as mine…
“She was born to do figure skating in every respect… her physique and her athletic ability…”
Miki Ando probably knew that her own body had, so to speak, been slightly too curvaceous… that her femininity had been stronger…
By contrast, Kihira’s body not only overflows with the highest femininity, but is also perfect in form and shape as an athlete… and Ando had discerned that.
That is why Miki Ando had seen through the fact that Kihira was an absolute queen.
That was also reflected in Patrick Chan’s comment, after seeing her at the Grand Prix event in Canada, that her skating was supremely beautiful… and that he had become captivated by it.
At one time, Japanese professional baseball players were said to practice too much and exhaust their energy before games.
But to return to the subject.
There is a consistent pattern when Kihira fails the triple Axel.
There are certain fixed characteristics when Kihira’s triple Axel succeeds.
The time until she enters the triple Axel is shorter than that of several other triple Axel jumpers… in other words, without thinking about unnecessary things, she takes off naturally, flowing within the stream of the performance.
When she fails, there is especially a fixed pattern… the time before entering the takeoff becomes longer… in other words, there is a problem in the flow of the performance.
When there is even a slight extra pause before entering the triple Axel, she fails almost without exception.
Her body sinks more deeply and the angle of her left leg at takeoff becomes deeper… this is exactly the same as when Mao Asada fails… if there is an extra pause only for the sake of jumping the triple Axel, then no matter how great the genius, tension will arise.
Therefore, I think there are two ways for Kihira to succeed with the triple Axel in the short program… instead of making it a single triple Axel, the +triple two-jump combination should be made into a +triple three-jump combination.
It must be made into the flow of a two-jump or three-jump combination, not just the triple Axel alone. If that is done, there will be no extra flow or pause caused by overthinking only the triple Axel, and no useless tension… Kihira is a gifted skater blessed with a body possessing the finest spring, so there is absolutely no need for her to tense herself before jumping. Sinking down unnecessarily and deepening the angle of the left leg… in other words, that destroys the rare spring of the body… which is her heaven-sent gift.
With the short program as it is now, she will make mistakes many times… the overall level of completion will become low.
From the start of the music to the triple Axel, there must be no strange pause, and the Axel must not be isolated but made into a two-jump or three-jump combination… that is the necessary condition for making Kihira the overwhelming absolute queen up to the Beijing Olympics.
Even if girls with acrobat-like physiques land quadruple jumps, they cannot defeat the beauty of Kihira’s triple Axel. Even if girls with acrobat-like physiques use their sickly thin bodies to land quads, it can absolutely never become Yuzuru Hanyu’s quadruple jumps.
Only Yuzuru Hanyu can rival the beauty of Kihira’s triple Axel. That is how absolute a queen Kihira is.
I know it, Miki Ando knows it, Patrick Chan knows it, the people in Russia know it, and that foreign coach who had asked for her autograph knows it.
The only one who does not know it is that choreographer, David Wilson.
I truly think he is the height of incompetence. He persistently demands that Kihira put on a fake smile before entering the triple Axel, and says foolish things like, “Kihira can definitely do it”… but fake smiles can be done by any second-rate or third-rate skater, not just Kihira.
That man understands nothing.
He does not understand at all why Rika Kihira shocked the world.
He is not fit to coach Rika Kihira… and most of the skaters he has coached have probably been second-rate or third-rate athletes.
For the sake of Japan and the world, and in order to answer the expectations that all fans who love figure skating hold for Kihira, the skating federation should dismiss that coach.
What the world wants to see is, at last, the greatest beauty in the world, that perfection. Nobody wants to see second-rate or third-rate tricks like fake smiles.
It is Dixon’s instruction that interrupts the flow of the performance and creates the unnecessary pause that leads to failure… and under no circumstances must we allow the stupidity of spoiling the finest talent the world has been waiting for through this man’s self-satisfied and foolish instruction.
It is the urgent task laid upon the Japan Skating Federation to find a coach who truly knows from the bottom of his heart that she is the greatest talent in history, who holds the highest respect for her, and who will, for as long as she remains active, keep her as the world’s overwhelming absolute queen, enchanting sports lovers around the world every year… such a coach must be chosen.
A performance composition with no unnecessary pause before the jumps including the triple Axel, music selection that matches Kihira’s charms, a performance that continues to dominate the rink and flows onward… the finest performance that enchants every spectator in the world.
The Japan Skating Federation must choose a choreographer and program constructor who can achieve that every year… who can deliver the finest possible time to fans around the world, and must answer the world’s expectations and dreams… For the people of the Japan Skating Federation, achieving that is to answer the gift from God… to answer the greatest gift God has bestowed upon Japan and the world in the form of the flower of Japan, a nation in which, as represented since long ago by Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon, women have been treasured more than anywhere else in the world, a nation where “The Turntable of Civilization” is turning… that is their duty.
When she succeeds with the triple Axel, she truly jumps it casually and effortlessly… that is why it is all the more wonderful, and why with its overwhelming beauty she captivated figure-skating fans throughout the world.
For Kihira never to fail again… it will be Rika Kihira who wins the gold medal at the coming Beijing Olympics…
Because she has not only been blessed with heaven-sent talent… but also has perfectly understood that this is her mission… and even chose a correspondence high school… in other words, she has separated herself from all worldly matters…
and possesses the absolute strength of understanding that her life is to walk the path of the absolute queen of figure skating…
a straight, unwavering strength that ordinary people can never understand…
because she has the spirit common to all truly first-rate athletes in every sport.
As for the coach in charge of Kihira’s choreography, why not appoint that famous coach who once said, “I am your fan too, please give me your autograph…”?
Because he surely knows the reason for the magnificence of Kihira’s skating… the source of that indescribable beauty…
and because he absolutely would not give such stupid instruction as persistently demanding a fake smile before she jumps the triple Axel… at the start of the short program.
On the contrary, he would instruct her only with the thought that everything should flow naturally… without any strain whatsoever… that she should skate only within the perfect beauty that is God’s gift… thinking only of that… thinking only of Kihira’s magnificence dominating the rink.
He, having declared that he is her fan, is a man who has lived within the world of figure skating.
For making her dominate the rink is nothing less than the completion of the attraction and dream he has long felt in figure skating.
Japan Skating Federation, for seventy wasted years after the war… even in the world of figure skating you fools have continued allowing attacks from anti-Japan states.
As Japanese of a true great power that, alongside the United States, must lead the world for another 170 years, you have the responsibility henceforth to lead the world of figure skating.
Understand as well that this… is the quickest road to peace and stability in the world.
You too must never again continue the foolishness of being made fools of by China and South Korea.
If you repeat the tragedy of Mao Asada, you should know that what awaits you is nothing but the torment of King Enma in hell.
You must continue at all times to beware the machinations of the people of China and South Korea.