Yuma Kagiyama: “After silver, the only thing left is gold.”
Yuma Kagiyama focuses on returning to his roots as he prepares for the upcoming season
original source: Nikkansports dd. July 9th 2025
On July 9, Yuma Kagiyama held an open practice session lasting about an hour at the Chukyo University Ice Arena in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, his training base. As he gears up for his first competition of the season, the “Minato Aquls Cup” (July 20–22, Nagoya, Honwa Minato Sports & Culture Center), he appeared to be in great form. Here’s a translation of his comments posted on Nikkansports.
Kagiyama performed three full run-throughs of his new short program “I Wish,” landing combinations like a quad toe loop-triple toe loop and a quad flip. Additionally, he unveiled part of his new free skate program, “Turandot,” which he described as the “highest-quality portion” of the routine. Starting from the final sequence of steps and ending with an arms-wide finishing pose, he demonstrated this powerful segment with confidence, saying, “It’s a piece that boosts my motivation and gives me a strong sense of confidence.”
With the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics just one year away in February, Kagiyama is focusing on achieving precision and excellence in the early stages of this season. While his ultimate goal is to incorporate the quad flip into his free skate, for now, he plans to challenge himself with a structure that includes three quad jumps – featuring the quad toe loop and quad Salchow.
“I want to refine my expressions to avoid being overshadowed by the music. While earning high scores is important in competition, I also hope to create a program that moves the hearts of the audience.” Setting a personal goal of scoring in the high 9-point range or even achieving a perfect 10 in performance components, he is committed to honing skills that only he can deliver.
“I want to go through each day without forgetting how much I love skating,” Kagiyama remarked, emphasizing his signature expressive performance style and exceptional skating skills. Last season was marked by fluctuations in his performance. Reflecting on his overemphasis on results, Kagiyama admitted, “I lost sight of myself and veered in the wrong direction.” Recalling the joy he experienced at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where he won silver and described himself as the “strongest version” of himself, Kagiyama is determined to savor every moment of skating this season.
“I’m enjoying my practice sessions – something that feels different from last season,” Kagiyama said with conviction. Confident in his abilities, Japan’s ace skater concluded, “After silver, the only thing left is gold.”
Related topics: Yuma Kagiyama
Leave a Reply