A skater who personifies technical perfection and "pure" skating is Japanese skater Yuka Sato, who placed fifth in the 1994 Winter Olympics, and won the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships. Yuka's style is elegant, light, flowing and with all these qualities, you often forget that she's also skating with a lot of speed. I guess that's a hallmark of a champion when you can draw the audience in with the full package and they don't notice one quality over any other.
Yuka was coached for the most part by her parents, who were Japanese national singles champions themselves. Her parents have coached other competitors, such as Shizuka Arakawa (2006 Olympic gold medalist), Fumie Suguri, Miki Ando, Yukari Nakano and the best spinner ever to grace the ice, Lucinda Ruh. They currently coach Takahiko Kozuka, the 2006 World Junior Champion, with Yuka acting as choreographer.
In June 1999, Yuka married American pairs skater Jason Dungjen and they started to skate in shows as a pairs team.
I love the below program from the 1999 Ice Wars. In addition to Yuka demonstrating perfect jumps (double axel, triple toe/double toe combination, triple loop, triple salchow), her speed and position on her spins are also beautiful to watch:
I love Yuka. Saw her live at the Brian Boitano skating show with Barry Manilow. She's just as lovely as ever.
Posted by: Sarag | January 19, 2008 at 10:19 PM