Nikkei article: Kakeru Tamashii Utako Nagamitsu (May 24)

I found a really interesting article in Nikkei Shinbun. (I loooove Nikkei Shinbun!! Thank you so much for the many wonderful articles about Dai-chan!!! )

May 24th 20210
駆ける魂 Kakeru Tamashii (Runnning Soul)
Figure skating coach Utako Nagamitsu (age:59) Part 1

"I don't want you to write...." After she warned so, Utako Nagamitsu started talking in the last August. With slow Kansai accent, "If everything goes right, I think it's natural for him to win (in the olympics). Though it's vague, I'm absolutely sure the boy will be on the podium."

'The boy' is Daisuke Takahashi who won the bronze medal in Vancouver Olympics in February. The time when she said this was just after he came back and skated in a show after a year absense due to the injury, however she seemed convinced already.

Takahashi says "She is a great believer.(How can I say "思い込みがすごい"? ) She is manlier than me and ready for anything." To believe becomes great power. Just before the competition started in the olympics, people said that to avoid the risk to jump the quad would be a secure way for him to win a gold. "I never thought to avoid. Because he had a tendency to fail when he played safe and it was Daisuke Takahashi who went for it. " "I'm a happy optimist. I've kept saying he was a person of high caliber. He proved it at last."

It was 11 years ago when they met. A boy came to the ice rink where she camped in Sendai. "Is he your pupil?" she was asked and answered "No." He was Takahashi. He came from Okayama for choreography and worked with Warsaw Concerto. While she thought "Difficult music for a boy in the second year of junior high school.", his choreographer went back on urgent business.

She pinch-hitted for the choreographer and was surprised when she actually taught him. "His movements were soft. It looked as if the music flowed out of him." Even though he was only capable of 2 kinds of triple jumps, he had a sense which she hadn't seen before. She enjoyed and made an elaborate choreography but Takahashi made it his own in less than a week. Watching him, she thought "This boy surely will compete internationally soon." It was the start of their partnership.

Nagamitsu believes that a man has to be a dancer. "It's the same in ballet. Men have more physical strength. So they have spare power to express." Among the top skaters, there aren't much difference in technical ability. Expression ability determines the winner. She has thought so for a very long time. Some people jeered "What is the use for men to dance flashily?" but she never doubted her faith. What saved Takahashi in Vancouver, whose tecnhical score wasn't so steady due to the injury, was the dance. The amount of the score of PCS.

Based on her initial plot, there would have been a westerner coach, who would have affect on the judges, in K&C in the olympics. But Takahasi refused it. She recommended him to work with Yu-na Kim's coach Brian Orsar ( ) after the break-up with Morozov but he said "No." She tried to ask Pasquale Camerlengo at least in the olympics but it failed.

Takahashi says "It was my intuition (to determine to be with only Nagamitsu coach). I rediscovered how great Utako-sensei is." And Nagamitsu thinks of her pupil, "I've thought he was still a young boy but I'm often surprised to see him to become an adult these days." The first ever medal for Japanese men's figure skating was brought by these two who have the same wavelength.



In "200 days", there is a chapter where Dai-chan wrote about the recent relationship between him and Utako-sensei. He also said he wanted to go to the olympics just only with her. I will translate the summary of it later. Please wait for a little while.

"With Utako Nagamitsu Sensei (p72-)" From 200 days

In the beginning of the chapter, he apologized Utako-sensei sincerely because he took his stress out on her many times. They had a quarrel just before the last NHK Trophy and he said to her "OK, I will go to NHK Trophy alone!" and she replied "Alright, please." He thought she really wouldn't appear there because she got so angry. He is always sorry for her because he can't apologize unreservedly even though he knows he is wrong.

---- (Translation) ----

There has been a major change since I parted from Nikolai two years ago. Sensei wanted me to work with a foreign coach, because I started to have my own opinion at that time and Sensei has took a role as a assintant for a while.
But I didn't want to move to another foreign coach. Because I felt frustrated somehow.
Both Sensei and my stuffs proposed me to have a foreign coach. Though I knew it was an option, I simply couldn't accept it. But I was consistent in this partucular belief.
I will go to the olympics with Sensei!
Is the brand of a foreign coach so important? Can't we win only ourselves? I can earn points if I do what I can, can't I? And you know, Russian skaters work with Russian coaches, don't they?
I don't know the reason clearly but perhaps there were feelings such as frustration, expectation, pride and show-off.
And I also felt frustrated with Sensei who said "You probably need a top coach." at that time.
Why on earth do you say such a thing?
As a negative reaction of it, I rejected the idea to have a foreign coach more strongly, I think.
Consequently I went for the olympics with Sensei in a twosome. People around us said various things and I think Sensei might have had mixed feelings.

*snip*

It seemed Sensei had intended to retire from her coaching job for me after Vancouver Olympics. But seeing I won the bronze not gold, she said "Probably God is saying you should continue a little more."
I'm sorry for Sensei but I will keep giving her trouble more. Please wait for a while until I can repay you for what you've done for me.


I'm sorry my imperfect translation! Tense, tense, tense.....

Hi,miyu, thank you soooo much for the translation. I can't help shedding tears after reading this
Daisuke is a great skater, he wants to climb to the top all by themselves(with Utako-sensei ). It seems there is deep love between the twosome although they seldom express it out directly.

Thank you for the translations, miyu!

Seeing them together at competitions, it's really obvious how much they care for each other (their hug after the LP at Worlds said it all).

When Dai left Morozov, the one thing that made all the drama a little less dramatic was to know that he still had someone he could really count on. Someone who would never let him down. I'm glad that he didn't take anyone else as main coach, but instead kept Utako-sensei as the "nucleus" of the team and got help from other people in specific areas (choreographers, Takeshi for the jumps, physical trainer, nutritionist, etc.)

miyu wrote:

I'm sorry for Sensei but I will keep giving her trouble more. Please wait for a while until I can repay you for what you've done for me.

and *awwwww*

Thanks so much for the translation, miyu! The Nikkei always has such great articles about Daisuke, and I love that they're running a series on Utako this time.

You are welcome.

Now you can see the articles in the web. Part 2 & Part 3 is more about Utako-sensei herself. But it's still interesting. I'm sorry I can't translate them now. If someone can, please.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

MissC wrote:

When Dai left Morozov, the one thing that made all the drama a little less dramatic was to know that he still had someone he could really count on. Someone who would never let him down.

So true, so true....

Quote :

With slow Kansai accent, "If everything goes right, I think it's natural for him to win (in the olympics). Though it's vague, I'm absolutely sure the boy will be on the podium."

This remind me of the episode below.

Quated from Golden Skate Forum.
2005 Skate America Men's Free Skate (where Dai-chan won the first GP gold medal.)
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?10644-Men-s-Free-Skate................For-Real&p=140190&viewfull=1#post140190

"I was speaking with a volunteer before the Men's medal ceremony who worked with the tech in setting up the music for the skaters.

Before the short program Takahashi's coach came over and asked them if they had the Japanese national anthem ready. She said he was skating very well and she felt he was going to win.

They assured her they had the anthem. She came back a second time and
asked to hear it. The tech and volunteer thought she was a little overbearing until they saw the short program."


It sounds like Utako-sensei can read the future. What do you think?

Quote :

And I also felt frustrated with Sensei who said "You probably need a top coach." at that time.
Why on earth do you say such a thing?

IMO, Dai-chan wanted to make Utako-sensei one of the world's top coaches by himself. And he did!




Here is the talk interview of Dai-chan and Kosuke Kitajima (who won a coulple of olympic gold medals in swimming).
Part1 Part2 Part3 Part4 Part5

thank you, miyu!
obviously, he became stronger after all that stuff.
I`m glad that he goes by his own way and for Dai & his sensei so cherish each other.

Thank you for the translation, miyu!

I'm wondering whether this interview would be aired on TV, like the one with 北岛？

Thank you for both the translation Miyu...

anorithil wrote:

I'm wondering whether this interview would be aired on TV, like the one with 北島？

No.


Here is the summary of Part2 & 3 of Utako-sensei's story.

Utako sensei started figure skating in the spring when she was in the 4th grade of elementary school. She won Japanese Junior Title once and placed in the 6th in a Japanese Championships. She was good at compulsory but not so good at jupms. She decided to retire when the jumps became more important in figure skating in 1972-73 season. In her last competitive season, the first winter olympics in Japan took place in Sapporo and she went to see it.
While a lot of people were attracted by Janet Lynn who placed in the 3rd, the skater who Utako-sensei was most attracted was Toller Cranston, who finished in the 9th place in Sapporo but later won the bronze in Innsbruck Olympics in 1976.
She said "The MAN danced." He shone out in the other skaters who moved their arms just up and down. This impact formed her principle.

(Toller Cranston - 1974 World Championships SP and LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7AZboQ0R08 )

She used to be scary as a coach. But coaching Mari Asanuma who represented Japan in the WC in 1991, changed her. She learned how to be patient with a talented skater. And she asked a foregin choreographer for her though in Japan it was usual for a coach to do everything including choreography.

After Takahashi won WJC in 2002, they set out a journey to foregin coaches because she thought his potential was larger than what she was capable to teach alone. Dai-chan said "Once Utako-sensei decides to entrust to someone, she completely entrusts. That's a great part of her." and she said "Better leave it to a specialist."

Utako-sensei never visited the hospital where Dai-chan rehabbed. When he whined "I might not keep going.", she just said "Oh, yeah?". Even though she got upset when he ran away, she was very sure he would come back. She knows he who is very sensible sees things without being told. Dai-chan said "I have no memory of being scolded for failing to get the results. She let me do things freely."

Utako-sensi broke her right arm in Turin before she came back to Japan. She thinks it was a good omen for the new start.