Sota Yamamoto: “We train together a lot at Chukyo, and his performances during practice are incredibly inspiring. Honestly, it makes me feel frustrated in a good way – it pushes me. I want to get even a little closer to Yuma-kun.”
Sota Yamamoto expresses determination to challenge Japan’s top skater, Yuma Kagiyama.
original source: Tokyo Sports, August 12th 2025
Sota Yamamoto reflects on his performance at the Summer Cup and shares his motivation to push closer to Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama as the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic season begins. Here’s a translation of his comments posted on Tokyo Sports.
On the third day of the Summer Cup (August 11, Kinoshita Kansai Ice Arena, Shiga), Yamamoto, who finished second in the short program (SP), secured another second-place finish with a total score of 231.79 points. His free skate score of 148.07 featured moments of resilience, despite early errors.
Yamamoto’s opening quad flip had a rough landing, and he fell on the subsequent quad alchow. Nevertheless, he executed a clean quad toe loop–triple toe loop combination and fought through the rest of his performance.
Reflecting on the competition, Yamamoto said, “During the off-season, I worked on various training elements, and competing this early in the season helped me identify a lot of areas to improve. I’m just going to build on this and give my all heading into the next competition.”
The day’s winner, Yuma Kagiyama, delivered a dominant free skate with a score of 204.78 to win the competition. Yamamoto, who often trains alongside Kagiyama at Chukyo University, spoke about the motivation he gains from their collaboration:
“We train together a lot at Chukyo, and his performances during practice are incredibly inspiring. Honestly, it makes me feel frustrated in a good way – it pushes me. I want to get even a little closer to Yuma-kun. I want to work hard alongside him, and I know I need to keep building my strength and improving.”
As the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics approach, Yamamoto is staying focused on his growth:
“Rather than rest, I want to take what I learned from today’s shortcomings and immediately organize my thoughts to prepare for the next competition. I’ll keep working so I can evolve as much as possible,” Yamamoto said.
Related topics: Sota Yamamoto, Yuma Kagiyama
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