[/floatl]ESPN: Figure skater Miki Ando has learned her lessons
An argument with her coach was the last thing Miki Ando needed. Yet there she was, hours before the free skate at last March's World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles, in the midst of a volatile discussion with Nikolai Morozov..."In the free program, I did not do a triple-triple," Ando said, referring to the combination jump that is becoming commonplace in women's skating. "In the morning skate practice I did it, but he said not to do the triple-triple (in the competition) because he knows it's difficult to get and they are going to downgrade it for sure if I miss...And I was just worried what the Japanese people would say. I did not feel comfortable with this. I was worried because I am Japanese"...Ando believes the jumps are so ingrained in the culture of the sport in her nation that to not attempt them shows weakness. It is something she's needed to overcome because, as Morozov explains, "there's a time to do certain things and a time not to"...He told her if she had such doubts, he would not attend the free skate that afternoon and their coach-skater partnership would be over. "You have to understand that figure skating is not only jumps, it is how you are skating and feeling and how you want to show people how you are," he told Ando..."Then I finally understand what in figure skating the audience wants," she said, this time with a radiant smile. "Because in Japan, they kind of like jumping, and if I did a quad or a triple-triple, they will say, 'She is going to win, she is going to get a medal.' It is that culture because we don't have any history in Japan in figure skating...more...
