Daisuke "Dice" Murakami announces his retirement from competition

[Sylvia]

I thought I would start a separate news thread now that there is an article in English: https://www.ifsmagazine.com/daisuke-murakami-retires/
Excerpt:

“This summer I am just going to enjoy myself and move on from the skaters’ mentality of ‘what’s next?’ I need to take some time. In a way, I feel like I am having a Daisuke Takahashi moment like when he went to New York for a year after he retired. I have been so consumed with skating and I have always been told what to do. Now, for the first time in my life I get to do what I want to do. I need to find clarity.
“I know there are going to be offers and opportunities coming my way, but I did not want to jump into anything right away. For the first time I did not bring my skates to Toronto. I just wanted to have some time and, for the first time in my life, I want to sit back and analyze everything and find myself again.”
Murakami said he announced his retirement to his Japanese fans via his YouTube channel “because I wanted to let them know myself rather than have them read it on a Japanese news site or someone else breaking the news. I wanted to do it on my own terms and even though my Japanese is not the best, I wanted to be the one to announce it.

This was his June 14th emotional announcement on his YT channel (includes English subtitles - click on the "CC" button): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKfZVOdvrLk

Copying over some of the posts from the Japanese news thread:

Dice Murakami announces his retirement: https://twitter.com/DaisukeMurakami/status/1007186090644549633
...
twitter translation/summary courtesy by user Iron_Klaus:

Sad news. He remains always as one of my 'what could have been's

Miki message to Dice
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkAAxY_DHWJ/?hl=de&taken-by=miki_m_ando0403

... I'm a fan of his YouTube channel. He seems like such a nice guy, and I hope he feels satisfied with his skating career and enjoys a great future.

Dice Murakami has another video up following his retirement announcement. The retirement video now has English subtitles, btw.

So, I'm not really sure what he's saying in this video, but based on the comments, it must be about his personal struggles and eating disorders. Can anyone translate? Thank you!

https://youtu.be/sbjITjFqL6s

 

[Coco]

Best of luck to him.

 

[A.H.Black]

We saw Murakami a couple of times at the Classic. I enjoyed his skating and cheered for him along the way. Best wishes to him.

 

[rosewood]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbjITjFqL6s

He thanked for lots of supportive words from his fans during the two days after the announcement of his retirement. He also got questions from fans. In this video he answered the question which asked what was the worst memory in his competitive career. He explained that it was the time when he struggled with weight control and eating disorder.

In his final Olys cycle (between Sochi and PyeongChang) he managed the weight control well. But before that he struggled a lot. At the time he grew a lot and it was his first time to stay out of his parent's house and live on his own. He was staying somewhere around NYC. His "Russian coach" told him to go on a diet. He didn't have anyone around him to consult, and he did everything that he can think of by himself for meeting his coach's expectations. Looking back the days he thinks his way of the diet was crazy, like he drank only coffee and didn't eat anything else on the day. Or, he ate only a small amount of nuts. He was 17 years old. He didn't think anything further or deeper than reaching goals in front of himself. And he struggled with eating disorder. He says the Russian coach told skaters to stay slim. He was young and he wanted to jump well. He wanted to get good results. Now he think what he did at the time was no good but at the time he was young and he didn't know what to do. After moving to Frank Carroll, Carroll taught him how to keep his physical and mental health in a good condition. He thinks Carroll saved his skating career. Back in LA under Carroll during his final four years he had a dietician for support. If he had a dietician back in the days when he was 17, he could have had different results. But at the same time he thinks the bad experience made him come where he is now. It was his lowest point in his skating life. Now he's having a off time for getting his feelings sorted to find another goal in his second life. He needed to tell his honest feelings/experiences before going on a new stage of his life. It's the reason why he talked about this bad experience now.

 

[kittyjake5]

Thanks for the translation @rosewood. So many skaters have suffered from eating disorders. I am glad that
he got the help he needed from coach Carroll.

 

[Dobre]

First time I saw Dice was live at 2010 Skate America in Portland. My mother and I had never heard of him, and of course, we were very excited to see the battle between Oda and Takahashi. But Dice did very well, and I remember saying, "Sheesh! Japan has another one."

It was a long time before I saw him--even on TV--again, but winning 2014 NHK Trophy (and defeating Hanyu into the bargain) wasn't a bad way for it to happen.

Though my favorite memory of his skating is this performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKsoJYbHbuM

Not perfect, but it was the best men's short program of the night at 2015 Skate Canada, and the performance is so smooth & cohesive. He grew so much as a performer between 2014 & 2015. It was the last time I saw him skate live, and a beautiful memory.

 

[rosewood]

Thanks for the translation @rosewood. So many skaters have suffered from eating disorders. I am glad that
he got the help he needed from coach Carroll.

True. I remember he often thanked Carroll for supporting him on the mental side. This video made me understand the reason. I second am glad he got the help. Best wishes for him in his second life!

BTW, I didn't know he is an active YouTuber! I'd rather wish he'll join Mao's tour after his "Daisuke Takahashi moment".

 

[bardtoob]

I always cheered for him because he achieved quite a lot with hard work alone. Despite his limitations, he had the 4S, 4S combo, 3A, and 3Lz-3Lp.

... It is unreal that someone with "limitations" could ever skate like this, but he did!

https://youtu.be/6gh5ljymcMk

 

[kwanfan1818]

Thank you, @rosewood!

The first time I saw him was at 2007 Pacific Coast Sectionals in Montlake Terrace, just north of Seattle.

I'm glad he had a resurgence in the last cycle, and I wish him the best in whatever his future brings

 

[livetoskate]

Thank you for the info, Rosewood! It's sad to hear about these teenaged skaters who are out on their own without much guidance. How can any elite athlete perform well with such poor nutrition and not enough calories?! That makes me have an even worse impression of that coach-- what an idiot to encourage eating disorders and bad health. Plus, it could not have been a healthy environment where the coach is sleeping around w/students & creating drama and tension.

I rewatched Dice's NHK and Skate Canada performances to relive the excitement he brought to those competitions. Such a thrill to see him do well.

I first heard of Dice when he won a Michael Weiss Foundation scholarship and interviewed him by phone for AsianAthlete. That must've been around 2004, when his coach was Tammy Gambill. He was a really nice kid, and I followed his career off and on since then, watching him at US nationals. His youtube videos are very fun and interesting to watch. It would be great to see Dice join the Mao Tour, continue in shows, or do any other profession that brings him satisfaction and happiness.

 

[nimi]

Dice uploaded another vid: https://youtu.be/hrEzEy-t6mY

Doesn't have English subtitles but it opens with an old pic of Dice with the other Daisuke and curly-haired baby-Adam so I guess he might be talking about happier memories while training under the "Russian coach" in NJ or something?

 

[nimi]

And another one: https://youtu.be/xk_QYn8JIRQ

Again, no English subtitles so I haven't watched it, but a helpful tweeter gives us this content description:

#DaisukeMurakami reflects upon his experience at Junior Worlds. He still competed for USA alongside Alissa Czisny, Adam Rippon, Meryl and Charlie. He interpreted for #TakahikoKozuka who won. #MaoAsada and Yuna Kim were also there.

He also unsuccessfully asked Mao out for a movie when they trained together at Lake Arrowhead. “I wonder what it would have been like if we had gone out”, he says

 

[rosewood]

YouTube translation works OK (from his Japanese to English). I even misunderstood that he updated the first video that @nimi posted (in #11) to add English subtitles since the machine translation worked well. lol Try it.