Pressure on for skaters as championships return to Japan

With the ISU World Figure Skating Championships having returned to Japan for the first time since 2019, the pressure is on the country’s skaters to deliver strong results in front of what should be a boisterous crowd at Saitama Super Arena.

In the first world championship held since the retirement of two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, all eyes will be on current men’s No. 1 Shoma Uno, who took gold at last year’s world championships and ISU Grand Prix Final as well as bronze at the Winter Games in Beijing.

Skating at this event for the seventh time — one behind Hanyu’s eight — the Nagoya native downplayed expectations of what would be a historic first world title defense by a Japanese skater, saying he hoped to overcome his jumping struggles ahead of Thursday’s short program.

“I wish my form was as high as (the expectations), but right now I can’t say that’s the case,” Uno told reporters on Tuesday. “Since last week I’ve been making the same mistakes (in practice), and I’ve tried making changes but nothing seems to work.

“Either I have to hope that I get lucky and something clicks into place, or I have to be prepared to push through, regardless.”

Sota Yamamoto, who finished runner-up behind Uno at the GP Final, in Turin, Italy, and Kazuki Tomono, who took third in December’s national championships, round out Japan’s slate of men, whose greatest rivals are expected to be an American contingent featuring reigning national champion Ilia Malinin and 28-year-old veteran Jason Brown.

“Since I was selected to represent Japan, I’ve been practicing not only looking toward the world championships, but toward my growth as a skater,” said Yamamoto, whose three silver medals in the Grand Prix series were his first since joining the senior ranks in 2016.

“The world championships have been my goal since I joined the seniors, and it’s taken a lot of time, but at any rate I’m glad to have gotten here.”

With skaters from historic powerhouse Russia still banned from ISU events over that country’s ongoing war in Ukraine, Japanese domination of the women’s singles podium is not out of the question, with reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto taking to the ice alongside 2022 Grand Prix Final champion Mai Mihara and 20-year-old Rinka Watanabe, who is making her worlds debut after placing first at Skate Canada.

Though Sakamoto took gold at last year’s world championships in Montpellier, France — just one month after achieving a bronze finish at the Winter Olympics in Beijing — she sees this week as an opportunity to get “revenge” for the 2019 world championships in Saitama, where she finished second in the short program before errors in her free skate saw her slump to fifth and miss the podium entirely.

“After making so few mistakes in practice, it was disappointing to fail in the competition itself,” Sakamoto said on Monday of her 2019 experience. “But a lot of time has passed, I’ve participated in the Olympics, and I’ve had a lot of experiences that have taught me what I need to do.

“The best revenge will be to perform a perfect short program and free skate and get onto the podium. I still have feelings of regret ... that I want to overwrite.”

Mihara is hoping to continue the red-hot form she has enjoyed over the past 15 months, including victories at the 2022 Four Continents, where she recorded her combined personal best score, as well as Grand Prix victories in Sheffield, England, and Espoo, Finland, before her triumph in Turin.

She told reporters on Monday that these world championships — her first in six years — would mark the finale for her successful David Wilson-choreographed short program to “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and that she intended to give it a fitting sendoff.

“I’ve thought about what 17-year-old me, competing (at the Helsinki world championships) in 2017, would think of 23-year-old me competing at the worlds today,” she said. “This short program is an expression of what’s happened in my life, and I want to take the experience I’ve gained and put that all into my performance here.

“I want it to be an expression of thanks to the program, to David and to many other people.”

Sakamoto, Mihara and Watanabe can still expect stiff challenges from the American and South Korean contingents, including new U.S. champion Isabeau Levito and recent Four Continents winner Lee Hae-in, as well as Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx, who finished second at the 2022 world and European championships.

In the pairs competition, Japan will be represented by Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, recent winners at December’s GP Final as well as February’s Four Continents in Colorado. Silver medalists in Montpellier, the duo known as “Rikyu-ryu” will have to overcome American challengers Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who earned silver in Turin, if they hope to earn Japan’s first gold medal in the category.

Former men’s No. 1 Daisuke Takahashi and ice dance partner Kana Muramoto will be aiming to improve on their 16th-place finish last year in Montpellier. It will be the 37-year-old Takahashi’s first time skating at a Japan-hosted world championship since 2007, when he finished second in the men’s singles at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium behind France’s Brian Joubert.

“My first world championship medal was in (2007), so now that I’ve come back as an ice dancer I want to make this a great event,” Takahashi said.

These world championships will be the first major figure skating event hosted in Japan since the government’s move to relax coronavirus-related restrictions at large-scale events, allowing fans to cheer without masks for the first time since the start of the pandemic — though they remain prohibited from throwing flowers and stuffed animals onto the ice.

“It has been around two or three years since fans have been allowed to cheer (in Japan),” Watanabe said on Monday. “Fans have had more and more opportunities to cheer overseas, and as an athlete nothing would make me happier than to have that same atmosphere here.”