(2)Mai Mihara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUk3sAuRPuE
She made a debut in Sr field this season. She loves to watch other skater's videos recorded in her phone to improve her own skating. She was a Jr skater who had a reputation as a very promising girl. Sonoko Nakano is a coach who thinks it's very important to teach her students how to live their lives as well as wishes her students to enjoy skating. Mai is a hard worker at school as well. Her friend says it's amazing many teachers praise her as a high achiever academically despite she's very busy traveling around the world, and she's inspiring to her classmates.
Mai: Suddenly my knees were unable to move when I got up. There were times when I had this kind of trouble but never had that awful pain before.
Last December she was diagnosed as
juvenile idiopathic arthritis. It occurs to 1/10,000 kid. It gives a patient serious pains in his/her every joint of his/her body. At present the cause of the disease is unknown.
Mai: When I was told to enter hospital, it was as serious as I was unable to walk. I was not sure I can make a comeback to skating. It was depressing. That said, I thought at the time "If I give up here, it's the end of the game. I'll believe in myself."
Narration: While it was supposed her comeback was impossible, she never gave up.
Mai: I saw Nationals in my hospital room. Skaters' performances encouraged me a lot. It was the strong feeling in my mind, "I want to skate there together with them once again!"
She made a comeback on the ice after 4 months (in May). She started with single revolution jumps. Then she was very fast to get her triple jumps back. She still needs to attend to the hospital once a month.
Coach Nakano: Sometimes her physical condition goes down and it makes her performance significantly lowered. In such cases I said to her "If you do this, try your best. Try your best up to the level where you fall down." Then her energy came back. I think she is a fighter whose will is stronger than everyone.
In this season as her comeback season Coach Nakano gave her a Synderella program. Caoch wished her to dance all up in this bright program.
Mai: If I were alone, I could not have come where I am now. My friends, my mom, Coach Nakano, Coach Urano...thanks to everyone's support I came here. I must not forget about this gratitude.
Narration: She got over the big difficulty with her hard working. The day is coming when she comes back to the stage where she wished so much to skate.
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Go Mai!! I'm looking forward to seeing your skate of your soul!
I think I love Coach Nakano's students (training in Kobe) like Mai & Kaori. I can see pure joy of skating from them. Their stunning skating skill and solid jumps are killing!
but better now that at Worlds.
ihara
