By Hiro Yoshida

Now well into their fifth season of skating together, Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen are increasingly gaining a following for their unique programmes and fresh approach to ice dance. This weekend marks their return to the European Championships after four years as they take to the ice in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Orihara and Pirinen initially started out as singles skaters in Japan and Finland respectively. Orihara competed in singles up to the Junior level (she finished in 14^th place at the 2014 Japan Junior National Championships) before switching to ice dance in 2016. Pirinen made it all the way to the Junior World Championships in singles (he came 33^rd) before he fully committed to ice dance as well.

“Since I started skating, I have been interested in the couples’ categories,” Orihara explained. “Actually, I did try pairs before ice dance. There was a little try-out with the Japanese Federation. Riku (Miura) started at that time. I tried for a few months or maybe a year. There was a chance that I could have skated with an American guy, but somehow my gut feeling said no. I started to do ice dance after this. I always wanted to leave singles skating.

“I always tell myself I should have started much earlier. The thing is my mom was encouraging me to do ice dance rather than pairs for a long time. When you do singles skating, you can’t move on that quickly. You feel like going to ice dance is kind of for losers.”

“Because ice dancers don’t jump and it’s so easy,” Pirinen laughed. “People think that it’s super easy. If you’re not talented in single skating, then you’re just the one who goes to ice dance to practice the edges.

“Everyone who thinks like this have to change their minds.”

“But that’s the usual mindset,” Orihara continued. “I remember talking to my singles coach about doing ice dance or pairs and they said, ‘You can do that from 20 years old. That’s when you move on to those categories.’ So that’s a mindset that everybody has, at least in Japan, or maybe used to. I don’t know. But I always think I should have started much earlier.”

Orihara belongs to the same generation of skaters as Kaori Sakamoto and Wakaba Higuchi who she competed against during her time as a singles skater. Ultimately, she decided it was not the path she wanted to follow.

“Jumping wasn’t my thing and I always liked the dancing and expression,” Orihara said. “I was getting pretty good points when I was a singles skater, but it was for the components.”

After competing with partners from Japan and Canada, Orihara teamed up with Pirinen in 2019. By then Pirinen had competed for Finland in ice dance for two seasons.

Despite only forming their partnership months earlier, Orihara and Pirinen found themselves selected for the 2020 European Championships in Graz, Austria following the withdrawal of training partners and fellow Finnish national team members Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis. They came a respectable 18^th.

“We did very well,” Pirinen recalled. “We made it to the free dance and we did a good performance there.”

Mere weeks later, the Covid-19 pandemic threw the world into chaos and naturally Orihara and Pirinen were not unaffected, although they feel that the restrictions in Finland on their skating activities were not as strict as elsewhere.

“I did go back to Japan for a while,” Orihara recalled. “It was a tough year for us.”

“We were quite lucky here in Finland because they closed everything, but for the national team athletes they kept one ice rink opened,” Pirinen said. “We practiced there a lot.” 

“We were already starting in May,” Orihara said.

“We were six weeks off, only six weeks,” Pirinen said. “That was the longest break I ever had from skating and, of course, coming back was terrible. I remember it was so painful when I put my skates on.”

Orihara and Pirinen have gradually moved up the standings year on year and now believe they are gelling better as a team which has reflected in improved performances and results.

“We’re connecting more in every season,” Orihara said.

“I feel like we have done a step forward definitely and we can feel it in the practice also,” Pirinen continued. “I feel like we are getting more consistent in practice. In previous years, we were doing mistakes in practice, but now we are definitely getting more confident.”

“I feel more connected,” Orihara said.    

“We start to go together,” Pirinen said. “Of course, there is still plenty of room to improve.”

For this season, they have chosen to skate to a Madonna medley for their rhythm dance and to the “Chicago” film soundtrack for their free dance. Choosing a theme for the free took a considerable amount of time, particularly as their previous programme about a sailor who gets killed and eaten by a mermaid had been a fan favourite. They felt pressure to pick a routine that would not damage the momentum they had built over the 2022/2023 season.

“Thank you to Yuka Orihara for the idea of skating to ‘Chicago’,” Pirinen said. 

“We struggled a lot this season to find the music,” Orihara said. “Because we did that mermaid programme last season, and it was a really good programme that everybody remembered. It was different. I really didn’t want to go down.

“For one month, at least, we were trying to find the music, trying different styles,” Pirinen said.

“I had this idea of ‘Chicago’ for a long time,” Orihara said. “It’s music that I always wanted to skate to. Then someone suggested us to do ‘Chicago’ and it was perfect. Somehow it clicked in my mind, and I had to convince him that it was going to be great.”

“At first I was not against it, but I didn’t agree right away,” Pirinen said. “Then she cut the music together, the first rough cuts, and that’s where we are now.”

Pirinen and Orihara have trained in Finland since the beginning of their partnership under 2002 Olympic bronze medallist Maurizio Margaglio and former French ice dancer Neil Brown. Along with their Finnish teammates Turkkila and Versluis, the coaching group also includes teams from quite a number of other nations.

“It’s super international,” Orihara said. “I love it.”

“We are like one family,” Pirinen said. “Sometimes in the dressing room we have very deep conversations. We really share our thoughts.”

“We are inspiring each other,” Orihara said. “I feel super grateful to have everyone.”

As with any team where the partners are of two different nationalities the question of competing at the Olympics crops up. Japan currently does not allow its citizens to hold two passports so if Orihara were to represent Finland in Milano Cortina she would have to renounce her Japanese citizenship. A big decision lies ahead of her and she is not yet in a position to commit one way or the other.

“I will do all the things I can to get ready and I will decide last minute,” Orihara said.

“We have a great plus that we live in Finland and Yuka has been living now already four full years,” Pirinen explained. “I think after five years you are technically allowed to apply for a passport. So, it’s possible and you just need to know the language and Yuka is already studying it with a Japanese teacher actually. As I told Yuka, as a partner I am not forcing her to do it because I understand it’s a very big decision. I understand that there is life also after skating so it’s too much if I tell Yuka that she has to. We will see how our career goes and if we will have a possibility for sure to go, we will consider it.”

“I haven’t decided anything, but I want to be ready,” Orihara confirmed.

Orihara has spent almost half a decade living in Finland and has gradually adapted to life there.

“I started to establish my life in Finland and I feel pretty good,” Orihara said. “I do YouTube. I rest. I have two cats and I have a boyfriend. I used to feel like I’m in another country, living abroad. This is my fifth year in Finland and I have been feeling like it’s my home. When I go to another country for a long camp, I want to go back to Finland.”

The fact that Pirinen has always been deeply immersed in Finnish skating has undoubtedly helped that transition.

“I have always been very involved in skating,” Pirinen said. “I’m also coaching ice dancers, the little ones in our club.”

This week they are firmly focused on their second Europeans appearance in Lithuania and performing to their best of their abilities.

“Of course, we don’t go there to fight for the medals,” Pirinen said. “But we go to gain confidence and experience.”

“We are aiming for top 10,” Orihara said.

“Judges decide, but I think we are totally candidates to be there,” Pirinen said. “Of course, we have to skate well.”

Beyond Europeans and even the Olympics, ultimately Orihara and Pirinen want to finish their careers with a sense of fulfilment and to leave their mark on the sport. 

“I just hope that when I quit ice skating that I am satisfied,” Orihara said. “That’s my goal.”

“To feel like you have achieved something and you can be proud of yourself,” Pirinen said.

“I have no idea what it will be, but I am hoping to feel that I have done my job,” Orihara said. “I did what I can do and it was my best.”

“Especially for Yuka, because she has sacrificed so much,” Pirinen said. “She left Japan to Canada, then she moved to another side of the planet to skate with me.

“Of course, everybody wants to be world champion. Everybody wants to get good results. Of course, we want medals, and go as high as we can and I think we have the potential to do it.

“I also know that it’s not everything about the results,” Orihara said.

“Our coach Maurizio says that we are able to entertain the audience so that’s our strong side,” Pirinen said. “One goal would be that we want to be remembered by the audience because there are champions that the audience doesn’t remember and then there are couples or skaters who were not champions, but they still are remembered because they were something special. I think that’s something special we want too.”