Hosted by U.S. Embassy:
Skating class and talk session by an Olympic medalist
" Interactive skating with Mr. Evan Lysacek"
10:00 – 11:30 AM, February 20, 2020
Yokohama Bank Ice Arena
I went to the event with my sister. When we arrive at the arena about 10 minutes before the start of accepting the participants, there were already some people and they were waiting in line. At 9:30, accepting started. We bought skating tickets and said our names to the staffs. We were told to disinfect our hands with alcohol before entering the rink area. We rented skating boots at the counter. We chose double blade boots because we were beginners. We found we could walk on the floor very easily with double blade boots. But we found almost no none borrowed boots except us.
After a while, we were told to go to the audience seats in other side of the rink. We had received an email about the schedule of the event from an embassy staff the day before. According to it, first, Evan would show some demonstration (not full-fledged). Then after warming-up session with him, he would give brief one-point lessons about 10 minutes each for beginners, intermediate and advanced skaters. We thought that we would see his demonstration first. We sat in a little backward seats so that the fence did not block our view. A little after 10 o'clock, three embassy officials appeared. First, a male Japanese official, who moderated the event, gave some greeting words. Next, an American female official greeted. Another Japanese lady was an interpreter. After a while, Evan was coming to us at last. We applauded him. He was wearing his Olympic gold medal on his neck. It was the first time I saw him in person since 2015 SOI shows. He looked more slender than his competitive days. Provably he has lost some muscles of a competitive athlete. And I felt him a little tanned. It might be because of his recent tropical life. And I felt him a little tanned. It might be because of his recent tropical life. They sat down on the chairs in the aisles in front of our seats. I noticed a silver (platinum?) wedding ring was shining very brightly on his left ring finger. He gave a small speech before the lesson. First, he said "Ohayou gozaimasu. (Good morning)" in Japanese. After that, he talked something like "Skating is the metaphor of our life. If you fall, you have to get up to achieve your goal. You have to fall many times and get up to make a success in skating or in one’s life." "Go for GOLD" was the slogan of this activity. I understood that what they wanted to let us know is about American temperament and culture to work hard without fear of failure in any part of life like as aiming for a gold medal in sports. Before he went to the rink, he said he was recovering from broken ankle now and could not do much but still was able to do some skating. The moderator said Evan would warm up with everyone. No demonstration? We had to go onto the rink right after that.
On the ice, he and almost all other participants began to skate soon. It seemed everyone except us had some level of skating skills. But we were completely beginners and couldn't skate like them. We were baffled very much. We were not separated by skating levels at all. After all, there was no lesson for beginners by Evan, unfortunately. We asked a rink staff lady near us what to do. She seemed an instructor of the rink and said "it's impossible for you to skate with them. Let's walk with holding the fence." She and another instructor lady took care of us and taught us how to walk on ice.
The skaters stood by the fence on the stand side. Evan explained the movement and demonstrated it, and then skaters made the same move. Evan's words were interpreted by a female coach of the rink. Our instructors proposed us to go where we could see the lesson better. We moved to near the center of the opposite side of the fence. First they practiced skating with their legs open and closed. I tried to imitate them, but the instructor said that we couldn't make a curve with double blade skates, and we could just go straight. There was also practice in bending and stretching the knees. I asked the instructor, "Does it mean that they gain propulsion by bending their knees?" She said, "Exactly." They practiced skating with swinging arms, and then with twisting shoulders and hips. The instructor told me we could do the same with our upper body by holding on to the fence. So we tried it a little. Evan has skated towards me to set examples many times. He had a serious face every time like when he was competing. It made me smile. After practicing for a while, Evan asked everyone, "Who can do backcross skating?" About half of them raised their hands. When backcross practice was over, he asked again, "Who can do three-turn?" About a third of them raised their hands. He instructed to keep their heels close when they changed their feet after three-turn. They all practiced three-turns together for a while. Evan occasionally skated alone and showed his excellent skating skills including some serial turns. My sister admired it "Beautiful!" Yes it was a truly time of bliss. Then he glided around on the ice widely with some occasional turns. I said "Wow! it's like the beginning of the 6 minute warm-up of competitions!" It was magnificent. The skaters followed him and they skated around the rink all together. The lesson finished in about an hour. It was a serious mood skating session from beginning to end.
Then I saw everyone gathered in the center on the other side. It was a group photo session. Instructors urged us to go there. We were slow but managed to join them in time with their support. After taking a few photos, everyone surrounded Evan. He let everyone touch the gold medal. We joined, too. I hold the gold medal and said, 'It's surreal!' Evan asked me, "Did you enjoy today?" I said “Yes. I am happy very much. But I am a beginner and couldn’t skate at all.” Then he said. “It’s OK. The best thing is enjoying skating.” It might not be his exact words, but he said something like that. My sister said the medal was heavier than she had thought. I felt it was as I had imagined because I had seen it at FOI show in 2010.
After the photo session, we returned to the stand and the talk session began. What I remember about the content of the talk is ambiguous, but it was approximately like the following.
This time he toured Japan for a sports Envoy project of the State Department, and had visited Hanamaki, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama.
At first, he was asked about his experience of the Olympics and said, "I realized the influence of the Olympics for the first time when I participated in Olympics. Not only athletes, but coaches and judges also represent the country. It is the same with sports Envoy activities which are also representing the country.”
Next, he was asked about his great success in the sport by overcoming injuries. "Competitive athletes have to face many obstacles. Injuries are one of those obstacles. You may not be able to practice for months or years if you get injured. But we have to confront it for our high goals without giving up. The same goes for not only sports, but also study or business.”
According to the moderator, the number of Japanese who go to schools in the United States is decreasing than before, and asked him about the good points of going to schools in the States. He said that each university has its own unique curriculum and it is good to learn them, but also we have a lot of things outside schools. It is a culture of doing best to achieve a big goal. In sports, you aim for a gold medal, and it is same in business or anything. Americans have temperament to make best efforts to their goals. It is what Americans learn since childhood. He said Japanese could learn that culture. You may think that American athletes is economically in better situation, but there is no government support. Sometimes I think it might be better in Japan. This rink is one of the most beautiful he had seen, but there are many worse rinks in the United States. However skaters are working hard in those rinks for a big goal. It is same with Japanese people to have a temperament to make efforts to be best.
After this, questions from participants were accepted. The first was a girl who seemed to be a competitive skater. It was how to deal with the pressure in competitions. She asked him in fluent English. "I sometimes felt impatient because I wanted to quickly know the results of what I had practiced at competitions. The best thing to overcome it is to prepare well . You have to prepare enough to be confident before the competition."
The next question was from a male adult skater, again in English.
Even if you want to continue skating, there are rinks unfortunately get closed (by business or economic reason). In such situations, how American skaters cope with it? “This is a difficult problem. Running a rink is very expensive and it gets sometimes out of business. It's the hard to lose resources for sports, but in the United States they will try to figure out how to deal with it and won't give up."
The last question from a young boy. "How old and why did you start skating?"
"I started at the age of 8. I was from Chicago, and it was a very cold place in the United States. In Chicago, everyone start skating like skiing, swimming and running. I played different sports every day in a week." When the boy he was nine, the moderator said that Evan started at the age of eight, and since the boy could already skate, he might get a gold medal in the future.
It was the last question. At the end, Evan said February 19(Japan time), the day before was exactly ten years since he won the gold medal, and he was very happy to have opportunities to skate with wearing a Team USA jacket for this day.
The event is now over. Evan was applauded by everyone and left. We were told that we could skate more for a while, so we went down to the rink again. As we walked by the fence, Evan was standing at a break in the fence, talking something. It seemed that they were filming a video. Wondering if we passed behind him we should be in the video, we stopped before reaching him. After a while the video shooting was over and Evan left the rink.
There was no lesson for beginners and it was a bit disappointing. But it was a precious experience. Evan was a very sincere and earnest person as always. I am very grateful that Evan and US Embassy have such a wonderful event during a time when difficult issues are affecting international exchange.