Yuna Aoki: “I was ready to continue if there was something more to move on to. But I’m satisfied. I would not want to continue to the point of starting to dislike skating, so I’m glad to be ending it today.”
Yuna Aoki about her performance at the Japanese Nationals.
original source: number.bunshun.jp dd. 26th December 2024 by Takaomi Matsubara
Interview posted on Sports Graphic Number Web, Yuna Aoki talks about competing at Nationals and thoughts about retirement. Here’s a translation of her comments.
“The difficult times were truly long,” Aoki reflected on her skating life. “Since figure skating is an individual sport, focusing on what I need to do is most important, and I didn’t worry too much about others’ results. However, it was painful to see others getting stronger and achieving results when I was injured and couldn’t perform well. Sometimes, I even wondered if this sport was really for me,” she told. One significant issue was her diagnosis with spondylolisthesis, which troubled her for years.
The impact of spondylolisthesis seemed to slowly dissipate, but in the summer of the 2019-2020 season, she suffered a left ankle fracture. After taking a full season off, she returned for the 2021-2022 season, facing what she described as the “deepest low.” She placed 30th in the short program at Nationals and for the first time, did not advance to the free skate.
At that point, she made a significant decision: to change her training base and coach. “I wanted to show my coach a beautiful view,” she said. In the 2022-2023 season, she placed 7th at Nationals, marking her return to being a top athlete after a long time. In the 2023-2024 season, she made her first appearance in the Grand Prix series at the NHK Trophy and achieved a podium finish, placing 3rd this season.
She sees herself as “someone who knows the joy of skating and of expression.” Despite frequently feeling like giving up, she has persevered and devoted herself to the sport. That’s why the hint at retirement was so shocking.
“I went into the performance wanting to give everything I could, but the free program was a bit chaotic, and I made mistakes that I don’t usually make in practice, so right now I feel very frustrated,” Yuna told reflecting on her performance at 2025 Japanese Nationals.
Mistakes in her jumps led her to finish the competition in 12th place, but her following remarks were striking. “However, this is probably my last Nationals, so I’m glad that I could finish with a performance that felt true to myself, in that sense, I have no regrets.”
Midway through speaking, Aoki couldn’t stop her tears. She clarified, “I had been thinking from the start to decide after the Nationals. Up until this, every day I’d been piling up the best practice sessions I’ve ever had. There was a part of me that thought, ‘This is as good as it gets’.
Considering the performance I delivered, I feel it’s reached an endpoint, and this result has allowed me to give everything. I was ready to continue if there was something more to move on to. But I am satisfied. I would not want to continue to the point of starting to dislike skating, so I am glad to be ending it today.”
“I had not dismissed the idea of continuing till the Olympic season, but really, I had been putting in the best practice ever leading up to this Nationals, and I definitely wanted to continue if there was something more to lead on to. But probably there isn’t.”
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