Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita: “Until now, people may have said that Japan wasn’t strong in couples events, but Riku and Ryuichi taught us that Japanese athletes can become strong. They made us want to become strong as Japanese ice dancers, too.”
Ice dancers Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita, silver medalists at the Milan-Cortina Olympic team event, expressed admiration for gold medalist pair Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara at the “Bloom On Ice” show and welcomed the announcement of a new couples-focused ice show.
original source: Hochi News dd. 1st May 2026
Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita, who won silver in ice dance at the Milan-Cortina Olympic team event in February, performed at the show. They spoke about their feelings toward the gold medal-winning pair “Rikuryu” – Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara – who also performed at the event. Here’s a translation of their comments.
Yoshida said, “Until now, people may have said that Japan wasn’t strong in couples events, but the two of them broke records, won Olympic gold, and earned many medals at the World Championships. They taught us that Japanese athletes can become strong. They made us want to become strong as Japanese ice dancers, too.”
Morita added, “In couples events, communication with your partner is said to be half the battle. Watching the Rikuryu pair, I could see they communicate a lot both on and off the ice, which was very instructive for us.”
On this day, Rikuryu announced the launch of a new ice show, “THE DESTINY” (July 31 – August 2, Tokyo Tatsumi Arena), which they will produce and which will focus on pairs and duos. Yoshida commented, “I don’t know yet if we’ll be able to participate, but there has never been an ice show in Japan focused on couples events before. I think it’s amazing that it’s happening, and I hope it will raise the profile of pairs and ice dance.”
Related topics: Masaya Morita, Riku Miura Ryuichi Kihara, Utana Yoshida
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