“I will spend this off-season being strict to myself so I can believe in myself at the Olympics.”
Rika Kihira, successfully landed the quad Salchow jump at the Japan Nationals. She finished in 7th place at the World Championship, but she had finished 2nd after her good performance for the SP.
She has turned this bitter experience into motivation for further improvement. And she has already started to move forward.
Q: You have entered Waseda University and enrolled in the department of Human Science this April. Is there any research field that you are interested in, or (do you have) a goal as a college student?
I have a strong desire to do any research that is related to my skating after all. That is the reason why I chose this specific field so I can use my research for my skating. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the entrance ceremony because it was right after I had returned from the World Championship, and the classes have already started from April.
I enjoy studying about the relation of children’s health and environment to their athletic ability. Unlike adults, there are still some areas for children where their thinking does not function. So this is the area we analyze what kind of behaviours they would do and how do they improve their athletic ability.
Q: In terms of the environment for children’s physical activity, would you think it’s possible to apply your own life experience that you have been trying various sports from childhood?
I haven’t thought about making use of my childhood experience yet, but I feel that I am experimenting with my own body and that leads to my daily research. When I check my body condition such as fatigue, various movements and success rate of jumps and compare them to previous data, I often have my aha! moment by that. So I would like to do research that can be used for skating in future.
Q: The fact that you are experimenting with your own body is something that only top athletes can do. What kind of research do you want to apply to skating specifically?
After all, I want to think about my jumps theoretically. I’d like to do something like graphing and analyzing things that can be quantified, such as the changes of heart rate while skating the program, the difference between when I’m tired or energized, and how does the quality of sleep affect my performance—things like that.
If properly converted into data and accumulated, you can objectively see what you have experienced in the competition and then you can understand the reason and meaning of success and mistakes.
I haven’t fully understood the university system yet, so I would like to look for an opportunity to find out how to conduct a study with my own body effectively.
Q: It has been an unusual season that you were training in Switzerland as your main training base in the middle of the pandemic.
There were times when I struggled to keep my motivation high. Because all the competitions I had planned to attend got cancelled until last December, I didn’t have any chance to show what I had been training for and I also didn’t get to do intense training.
There was also a time when I couldn’t enjoy training because there had been no chance to feel a sense of accomplishment. But the training environment in Switzerland was very good in that I could naturally have a feeling of gratitude. I could somehow manage to let the difficult time go by with that feeling (of gratitude).
Q: It seems that your life in Switzerland gives you a very positive effect, doesn’t it Kihira-san?
I usually felt stressed before the competitions, thinking about the competitions all the time or connecting every single thing happening to negative feelings and thinking, “Oh…I don’t think I can make it at the competition either.” But now I feel that the current environment in Switzerland made me think more positively.
During the off season especially, the training was very difficult, so I didn’t have to worry if I wasn’t doing my best. Each day I started feeling a sense of accomplishment when I felt my whole body was exhausted (after the training). Although we had a very intense training menu, it wasn’t so difficult to push myself together with my friendly team mates while being surrounded by nature in Switzerland.
Q: You landed the quad Salchow jump for the first time at the Japan Nationals last December. With this success, was there any change to your mind about going into the World Championship?
It was difficult for me to gain confidence about myself so easily just because I had landed a quad jump for once. So I wasn’t really able to feel excited for the World Championship. But when I arrived in Stockholm and entered the venue, I felt like “I’ve done what I could do and I want to show what I’ve been training in front of everyone naturally”.
Q: At Worlds, you landed triple Axel jump and had a good start with 2nd after SP.
I was determined to perform with gratitude for many people who supported me until now. I received all the support from my coaches, my fans, and my family. I had no choice but to show my gratitude there when I went to jump (the triple Axel). And I also wanted to confirm my love for figure skating by landing the jump successfully at the competition.
Q: Only a few female skaters have been able to do both triple Axel and other quad jumps. Do you find it (being able to jump 3A and quads) significantly difficult?
Actually, the triple Axel is more difficult to stabilize since it is a kind of jump that really depends on the ice condition. So the timing for the jump take-off may easily change because of the position of the blades or the softness of the ice.
And the quad Salchow on the other hand, I do feel it is relatively stable even at the different rinks. So I think that the triple Axel is a slightly unique jump.
Q: Is there any difficulty in balancing the two types of these difficult jumps?
I don’t think the triple Axel is becoming [more] difficult after I’ve landed the quad Salchow. But as I practiced it more, I found that jumping triple Axel followed by quadruple Salchow in one program is difficult compared to just doing each jump alone.
I think the fact that there are only a few female skaters who can do both types of jumps is because they tend to get mixed up on how to use their body for each jump.
For me, if I continue my training everyday so that I can do run-through without any mistakes, there will be less difficulties to do these jumps.
Q: There were expectations for you to challenge the quad Salchow and the triple Axel for FP at the World Championship.
I was practicing the quad Salchow during the official practice in the morning practice on the day of the free program. But soon after the official practice, they switched the rink for FP from the sub rink to the main rink. (t/n: it seemed that official practice was held at the sub rink that was supposed to be used for FP.) Accordingly, I only had 6 minutes practice for the last chance to adjust myself to the ice. I thought I couldn’t make it in time so I decided to go with two triple Axels instead of a quad Salchow (and a triple Axel).”
It was difficult for me to adjust to the ice in just 6 minutes, but I think there will be such a situation at the Olympics. In order to jump the quad Salchow and the triple Axel at the competition, I really felt the importance of the training to adjust myself immediately in just 6 minutes.
Q: What kind of training do you want to do in order to adjust yourself and be able to jump both the quad and the triple Axel in just 6 minutes?
I was always checking my jumps starting from triples (and then quads) in order during 6 minutes practice, but at the World Championship, 6 minutes ended when I just finished checking my triple Axels twice.
As I’m including the quad jump into my program regularly, I feel that I need my triple jumps to be ready for the performance without having to check on them during the 6 minutes practice. I would like to do more training to increase the stability of triple jumps on a daily basis.
Q: You mentioned that you did well with your mental control at the World Championship.
Yes. I think I was able to relax rather than feel nervous. From my experience, I started to understand that I’m unable to perform well when I’m nervous, so I feel that I’ve figured out how to concentrate and relax clearly.
Q: Is it quite different from the way you concentrated before?
For example, if I’m getting nervous and wondering if I can really jump during the waiting time, I would move my whole face and say “A, I, U, E, O” to loosen my face muscles, and then I also laugh at myself. This is something that I do to turn my anxiety into excitement, and my nervousness into laughter.
Also, in order to avoid being nervous right before my performance, I usually skate with this image of all judges sitting in their position, and think “how would it be if this is the real competition?” during the official performance.
Q: After the World Championship, many of your comments were very positive, weren’t they?
I definitely think it’s better not to get depressed and think like, "I’m not good at everything.” And I’m very positive about the fact that I’d been training really hard to increase the stability of quad jumps for the competitions.
I remember that my body movement was better during the morning practice on FP day and my performance was better than SP.
And two days after the competition, my condition was getting better again and I could pull myself together. Of course I have the regret that I couldn’t get a good result, but now I want to think about what was wrong and what was good, and move forward positively while reflecting on it.
Q: Please tell us about your programs in future. Your SP’s one-handed cartwheel was getting so much attention this season. Do you have any plans for the next season already?
Right now, I’m planning to keep my SP "The Fire Within”, but I will change my FP “Baby, God Bless You” to something else. I really love my FP’s music this season, the birth of life was its theme. It was a beautiful program and also had good flow to it, so I tried to express the beauty of the music by a sense of speed of skating.
For the Olympics, I am planning to create a program with good speed and also some parts where I can go slow and take a good rest.
I really want to work hard on expressing the emotion through (my) facial expression so the audience will understand the program effortlessly, like a story being told, connected from beginning to end.
Also, it is important not to make any mistakes even if I put in difficult jumps, so I want to make sure to have a part where I can calmly adjust myself before going into the second half of the program. So I want my new program to have some sort of accent (for the rhythm of music and choreography).
Q: What kind of training do you want to do during this off-season?
First of all, intense body training. I’m planning to go over my competitive programs (SP&FS) when I will practice the show programs during the upcoming ice shows from spring till summer.
In order not to waste my time until the Beijing Olympics, I want to think about the Olympics every day and make sure to do intense training when my physical condition is good.
By spending the (off-season) time being strict to myself in this way, I can believe in myself by thinking, “I’ve been doing my best for the Olympics” at the moment of my performance at the Olympics. So I want to spend this off-season being strict for myself.
Q: For the Olympics, many people (media) will focus on how you would fight against the Russian skaters.
At the World Championship, I felt that the Russian skaters were able to perform their best at the very right timing (competition). But right now, I think there’s no need to compare myself with somebody else, the result from this competition came from the fact that I couldn’t perform what I could usually do.
It’s not that I have some parts that need to be improved compared to other people, but I could find a lot of my own challenges. I want to overcome them before going into the Olympics.
You may make a big mistake if you keep trying at random, just because you are way behind the Russian players.
If someone will do quintuple jumps, I wonder if I would go for quint jumps, that’s not the case. I believe that it will eventually show in the scores if I keep doing what I can do right now.
I did feel that the Russian ladies skaters are strong, but I just want to calmly analyze my situation and keep doing my best every day.
In April 2021, remotely during the quarantine period after returning to Japan
thank you to Fukuhana for translating and to Sunny for proofreading and editing the interview.
