TV: "Daisuke Takahashi's Challenge" (12/21)

There was a news feature today about Daisuke's quest to regain the quad, with Shizuka's commentary at the end.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwAcXM7DGoY

0:47
Narrator: Christmas. For Daisuke Takahashi, this is a very important day.
Daisuke: Because there's a competition...
Narrator: Japan National Championships, the final battle to decide the representatives for the Vancouver Olympics. But Christmas is also an anniversary for him.
Daisuke: My right knee is one year old. I had surgery on the 26th (of November), and was released from the hospital on Christmas. So it's been one year and one month.

The next few minutes talk about his injury and rehab, all stuff that's been covered in news features 123856 times already.

4:15
Daisuke: After the surgery, I had a small feeling of, "This is impossible. How am I going to make a comeback? I don't even have any strength (in my knee)."

Then they talk about him trying to relearn his jumps.

5:34
Daisuke: I didn't know the feeling for jumps at all. And I really feared landings.

He finally got all the jumps up to the triple axel back, and started training the quad again in August. By the time he went to Finlandia in October though, he still hadn't landed the quad cleanly even once. The first time he did so was in the the official practice six hours before the long program.

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Fx5UsETcg

NHK Trophy. In the official practices, Brian Joubert and Takahiko Kozuka easily landed quads, but Takahashi couldn't.

1:13
Daisuke: I couldn't land the quad, but other skaters were landing them repeatedly. It made me really depressed. I tried not to be defeated by the feeling that I was going to lose. No matter if my condition is good or bad, I plan on including the quad...

Why is Takahashi so fixated on the quad? Because of the return of Evgeny Plushenko.

1:57
Daisuke: Joubert and Plushenko can easily land quads. If they include the quad, it's impossible to win without a quad.

In the competition, Takahashi failed on the quad, but Joubert landed it easily. While the medalists had a press conference after the competition, Takahashi returned alone to the hotel.

3:37
Daisuke: I guess you could say I felt lonely, or empty. It wasn't the time to be talking about an Olympic medal. I felt that I was really in trouble.

Two weeks later, Skate Canada.

4:01
Daisuke: It's not good to escape and not include the quad right now. Including it will build experience so I'll continue to include it.

5:20
Daisuke: Being a top male skater means having the quad. Even if I won without the quad, I wouldn't feel like I really "won." The quad is the most exciting part of men's skating. It feels good when you land it.

Now the newscasters ask Shizuka for her opinion of Daisuke, having trained with him before. She says that he's a fast learner and absorbs things very quickly, to the extent where watching him skate made her lose confidence. Then they ask her why he hasn't been able to regain the quad yet, and they play clips of him practicing it from last week (no clean attempts). Shizuka says that he still hasn't grasped the feeling of it. Since his body's become more flexible after the rehab, the angle at which he jumps has changed, and the timing of the lower body and upper body don't match when he tries to rotate. He still hasn't figured out how much strength to use. But she thinks he'll be okay once he grasps the timing since he's a quick learner. To end, she points out that even though his total score is only seventh out of all the skaters so far, he has the second highest PCS, so if he can improve his TES there's still hope.

Thank you for the detailed translation, Calliope!