Chiba Mone says Hanyu Yuzuru was 'like a brother' in her early skating development - now she's set for debut at Worlds
The 18-year-old has had a breakout three months: Silver at Japanese nationals before winning the Four Continents title. Earlier this month she achieved another milestone: High school graduation.
Figure Skating
Born in the same Japanese prefecture as two-time Olympic figure skating champion Hanyu Yuzuru, 18-year-old Chiba Mone has described the skating legend "to be like a big brother" in her early years on the ice in Sendai.
The last 10 weeks Chiba has seemingly drawn from those "playful" moments on the practice ice with Hanyu before he left to train in Canada: She claimed the silver medal at the Japanese Championships in late December (behind only two-time and reigning world champion Sakamoto Kaori), before winning the biggest title of her career, Four Continents in Shanghai, in early February.
"I'm extremely happy that I was able to put on the best performance I'm capable of now," Chiba said, according to Japanese media.
And what is she capable of in her debut at the World Figure Skating Championships later this month? She'll join Sakamoto and fellow 18-year-old Yoshida Hana on what is expected to be a power-packed Japanese women's team in Montreal.
Her personal best of 214.98 in Shanghai ranks third among senior women this year, behind (you guessed it) Sakamoto and Loena Hendrickx, the two-time world medallist.
Another former world medallist - and two-time Olypmian - Suzuki Akiko has choreographed for Chiba the last three seasons, and this year did her free skate, set to The Legend of 1900.
It's a play from Hanyu's handbook that may be serving Chiba the most, however: In May of 2023, she left Sendai to train in Kyoto under the watchful eye of Hamada Mie, who just last month was named the ISU's coach of the year.
Chiba Mone: 'My goal is to be a well-balanced skater'
Chiba is an athlete that doesn't forget: After a lackluster 11th-place showing at the Japanese Championships in 2022, she said she carried her "frustration" into the 2023 iteration of the event, placing third in the short and then fifth overall.
But a strong season elsewhere last year wasn't enough to get her named to the competitive Japanese women's squad, something she carried into this year.
"Everything paid off," she said after winning the silver, behind Sakamoto.
Chiba hasn't shied away from taking on challenging content: Last year, she skated to a Suzuki-choreographed short program to Schindler's List, often reserved for mature, seasoned artists on the ice.
"My goal is to become a well-balanced skater," she said in late 2022.
It's a goal much easier said than achieved in this sport, notably with Suzuki (as well as Misha Ge doing her short) as choreographer and the move to Hamada, where a stable of coaches have helped her development.
What comes next on the ice is still to be seen. Off of it, she graduated from high school recently, and announced she would attend Waseda University, the same place Hanyu did his studies.
While she's not yet close to the scale of Hanyu's appeal, she's learning some of what he faced, too: News cameras were present for her graduation, including an emotional speech she gave to classmates, as Japan sees its figure skaters as bona-fide stars.
Chiba, so it seems, appears ready to graduation to the next level of the sport, too.