Two Japanese athletes winning medals in the same event is a cause for celebration. Nao Kodaira won the silver medal in the women's 1,000-meter speed skating event at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Although Kodaira narrowly missed out on the gold, she displayed the powerful skating typical of a world record holder.
Miho Takagi clinched the bronze in this event. This brilliant achievement followed her silver medal in the 1,500 meters.
After missing out on a medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Kodaira shifted her training base to the Netherlands, a nation where speed skating reigns supreme. Being pushed hard by extremely talented skaters in the country increased Kodaira's physical and mental strength.
Kodaira's insatiable ambition to improve her performance helped her reel in a medal. There are high hopes she will win the gold medal in the 500 meters.
Takagi competed at the 2010 Vancouver Games while she was a junior high school student. She was lauded as a skater of exceptional talent, but was not even selected for the Sochi Olympics. That indignity appeared to be the motivation for her growth as a skater.
The flurry of medals won by Japanese athletes is extremely pleasing. Ski jumper Sara Takanashi won bronze in the women's normal hill event. At the Sochi Games, Takanashi had widely been considered one of the favorites to grab the gold, but ended up placing fourth.
Takanashi could not quite reach a long-cherished gold medal on a stage that gave her a chance to dispel that disappointment. However, she did some beautiful jumps. What a memorable scene it was when Takanashi, in tears after her event finished, said, "I did my best jump at the end."
Men also doing great
Japan's male athletes also have given some excellent performances. In the Nordic combined normal hill individual event, Akito Watabe bagged the silver medal. Watabe was third after the crucial ski jumping portion, and despite his best efforts to snatch the lead in the cross-country skiing section, he came up just short. Even so, winning a silver medal, like he did in the same event in Sochi four years ago, is a magnificent achievement.
In the men's snowboard halfpipe, Ayumu Hirano also picked up his second straight silver medal. Hirano successfully landed a string of extremely difficult moves and gave Shaun White of the United States, a charismatic snowboarder, a tough challenge. Hirano is still just 19, so he should have a very bright future in the sport.
Moguls skier Daichi Hara's aggressive skiing resulted in him winning a bronze medal. Hara was the first Japanese man to win a medal in this event and the first Japanese to stand on the moguls podium since Tae Satoya at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. Hara's medal is indeed significant.
It is regrettable that short-track speed skater Kei Saito tested positive in a doping test.
An out-of-competition test detected a banned substance with diuretic effects, and Saito has been provisionally suspended. Saito said he did not know how this result happened, but the fact that he tested positive is extremely serious.
An athlete snared for a doping violation will see their years of hard work come to nothing. All athletes must exercise extreme care to avoid taking banned substances.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 15, 2018)
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