Grand Prix de France 2023: Back from injury, Kagiyama Yuma wants to "stand out" with new program and new coach
The Japanese skater will debut his "Believer" and "Rain, In Your Black Eyes" routines internationally this year after missing last season through injury, and intends to make a mark this season with new coach Carolina Kostner behind him.
Figure Skating
It's safe to say Kagiyama Yuma wants to make up for lost time.
The Beijing 2022 Olympic silver medallist has not competed internationally since winning silver at the World Figure Skating Championships in March 2022, sidelined with an ankle injury that nagged away at him.
The now-20-year-old missed the entire 2022/23 season, only appearing at the Japanese national championships in December while not fully fit and earning an eighth-place finish.
Speaking recently, Kagiyama said: "They let me appear because I said I wanted to appear, but I ended up giving a performance that I wasn't satisfied with. However, I now have a clear idea of what I should do going forward."
That clear idea seems straightforward: regaining his place as one of the world's best skaters. "Perfect performance and artistic skating!", he wrote on a card detailing his goal for the 2023/24 Grand Prix season which he unveiled last month.
His absence from events last year means the Japanese skater, who also won Winter Youth Olympic Games gold at Lausanne 2020, is set to debut his Believer short program and Rain, In Your Black Eyes free skate routines in the Grand Prix a season later than planned.
"Watching last year's events, I saw the men's performance level getting higher in Japan and also globally, so I'm excited" he added. "There are many different skaters with different personalities who I plan to learn and absorb from.
"When I compete internationally, I want to do my best and stand out through my programs."
Changes for Kagiyama Yuma: working with Carolina Kostner
When Kagiyama takes to the ice this weekend (3–4 November 2023) at the Grand Prix de France in Angers, there will be a new face in his corner by rinkside.
While his father Masakazu remains his jumping and technical coach, Italy's Olympic bronze medallist and 2012 world champion Carolina Kostner has come on board to help with the younger Kagiyama's choreography and artistic expression.
They first worked together in March and April 2023, when Kagiyama held a training camp in northern Italy, where Kostner is from and is based. After the camp, the Kagiyama team asked Kostner to join them. "[She] taught me a lot about expression and improving my skating in Italy," Kagiyama said.
So far, the partnership seems promising: on his return to international competition, at the Challenger Series Lombardia Trophy in September, Kagiyama scored in the nines for all three of his free skate program components: composition, presentation, and skating skills.
That month, he also won the Tokyo regional championships, a qualifier event for this December's national championships. More recently, Kagiyama added the West Japan Student Championships title to his collection, scoring 198.06 points in the free-skate-only event.
"It's been a very big honour to share my experience in any kind of way," Kostner told Golden Skate recently of her role. "I've been working with Yuma on his long program (free skate). We can see in Yuma that he is truly growing as an artist and it's starting to resonate in him the different choreographies."
The first major test comes this weekend when Kagiyama takes to the ice at the Angers ICEPARC for his first Grand Prix event since the Internationaux de France held in Grenoble two years ago.
"I think perfect performance will be necessary to win through the Grand Prix series," Kagiyama said in quotes reported by HOCHI.
"I'm putting a lot of effort into expressing myself. I want to do my best to be able to perform artistically and skate well."
Grand Prix de France figure skating 2023: How to watch
American fans can catch the action on Peacock's live stream throughout the weekend. NBC will host a recap show at 12:30pm ET on Sunday November 5. See the full U.S. broadcast schedule here.
For international fans, discover your local broadcaster here. Some regions may be geo-restricted when it comes to availability. TV Asahi is the ISU partner broadcaster in Japan, with SBS Korea carrying coverage in the Republic of Korea, CCTV in China, Eurosport in much of Europe, CBC in Canada and SBS in Australia.