VOX POPULI: Ice skaters use humiliation as a springboard

I don't know where it is set, but there is a short poem about a winter lake by sculptor and poet Kotaro Takamura (1883-1956) titled "Hyojo Gigi" (Play on ice).

"Let us go onto the ice that stretches 7-ri square (roughly 28-kilometer square)/ Breaking the glass-like air that pings when hit/ Let us fly/ Throwing our bodies shaped thinner than a falcon/ Let us skate."

Reading the poem, I can almost hear the cheers of joy of boys from the distant past.

Although times are different, perhaps two men that I am thinking of also spent their boyhood winters playing with ice and snow. I am referring to speedskaters Keiichiro Nagashima and Joji Kato, who won silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men's 500-meter event at the Vancouver Olympics.

I hear Nagashima is tough and strong-willed. At the 2006 Turin Games, he cried after tasting bitter defeat, having placed 13th in the 500-meter event and 32nd in the 1,000-meter competition.

"I got knocked down because I entered the races even though I had no power. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to die," he said.

His attitude of focusing on winning rather than racing against the clock reminds me of a swordsman fighting a duel.

Kato also ended with a disappointing sixth place in the last Olympics, despite high expectations.

He later bought a car with the license number 3399 because of his determination to be the first skater to break the 34-second mark in a 500-meter race. Perhaps he can be likened to a determined seeker of truth.

Both men used indignity and humiliation as a springboard to win Japan's first medals in this Olympics.

Unfortunately, in figure skating, the Russian pair of Yuko Kawaguchi, a Japanese native with Russian nationality, and Alexander Smirnov finished in fourth place.

"I have come to realize that pair skating is the pride of Russians," said Kawaguchi, or Kavaguti in its Russian rendition, who emigrated to Russia eight years ago. Unfortunately, she hit the ice after a failed throw jump.

"Competitors in women's figure skating/ Resemble leopards chasing their prey/ Ruts left on the ice rink are horrendous" is a tanka by Noriko Fuchigami which ran in Asahi Kadan, the vernacular Asahi Shimbun's tanka column.

The same thing can be said of pair skating.

The ruts left in the ice are also testimony to the athletes' glories and regrets. I think, once again, about the merciless divide between third and fourth place.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 17

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.