By Hiro Yoshida

After creating history at the World Championships in March 2024 when she became the first woman in 56 years to claim a third title in a row, Kaori Sakamoto embarks this season on a quest to further embellish her legacy.

Following her victory in Montreal, Sakamoto took a well-earned break before her preparations for the new season began.

“In April, I had a lot of fun with friends until the choreography for this season’s programmes started,” she said. “I went to Fuji-Q Highland (an amusement park in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan) for the first time! It was so much fun.”

As is now customary, Sakamoto toured with a number of ice shows in Japan and made her first performance of her new short programme to two tango pieces by Astor Piazzolla choreographed by Rohene Ward. There was also a long-awaited medal ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Olympics team event that was held during the 2024 Paris Olympics in August where she received her silver medal along with her Japanese teammates in the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. While she was in Europe, she travelled to Varese in Italy with Yuma Kagiyama and Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara for a training camp. The city is scheduled to be a base for the Japanese team for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics. On her return to Japan, preparations for the upcoming season kicked into high gear. Before she knew it, she was back in Italy to compete at Lombardia Trophy.

“I arrived in Paris on 6 August, then from there onto Italy, flew back to Tokyo and went straight to Morioka,” Sakamoto explained. “The next day my club had a training camp. I trained in Morioka for a week, took care of some errands in Tokyo and came back. August went by so quickly.”.

The decision to compete at Lombardia Trophy in early September as her season debut of the was influenced by her hectic summer.

“I didn’t enter a single competition in August this year. Other events were either too early or too late, so this year was difficult. The timing was right for Lombardia, due to the Grand Prix Series (Sakamoto was assigned Skate Canada and NHK Trophy). I thought it would be the easiest way to adjust.”

Naturally, there was a great deal of attention on Sakamoto as she got her season under way. She laid down a solid performance in the short programme with the only significant error an under rotated triple toe loop off the back of a triple flip. However, she found herself behind Amber Glenn from the United States of America who succeeded in cleanly landing a triple Axel.

“For now, I’m happy to have exceeded 70 points,” Sakamoto commented after her performance. “It’s the beginning of the season and I’m not yet at my best. I wanted to give the best performance I could, and I’m relieved that I was able to do that today.”

She acknowledged that there were still things to be improved both on the technical and artistic sides of her routine.

“When I watched the replay, I realised that the rotation was insufficient,” she reflected. “When I do a flip and toe loop combination, my body stiffens up. I often get distracted and think about unnecessary things, so I want to work hard in future practice to be able to jump properly without those things and gain confidence.

“I have never done tango in a competition before. When Rohene suggested it, I decided to do it, but during the competition, my mind was full of other things. I want to watch the video later and check it in detail.”

Lombardia Trophy was also the debut of Sakamoto’s free skating programme, which is based on the “Chicago” musical film starring Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Surprisingly, Sakamoto’s first time seeing it was during the event in Italy.

“Yesterday, the short finished early so I watched the film, but it only had English subtitles, so I was only able to grasp parts of it,” she admitted. “When I get back to Japan I’ll watch it properly with Japanese subtitles.”

Marie-France Dubreuil has choreographed Sakamoto’s free programmes for three consecutive seasons. Although the original stage production was directed and choreographed by the legendary Bob Fosse, the free was not created with the end of season World Championships taking place in Boston in mind.

“Marie told me, ‘I want you to do this song next season,’ and that’s how it was decided,” Sakamoto explained. “It’s been a while since I’ve skated such a lively type of song which I don’t often skate to, so I wondered, ‘Can I keep up with this fast tempo?’ But I got used to it as I went along. I think it’s a good challenge.”

The free skating at Lombardia was a tough first outing. Sakamoto made a number of mistakes, including a hard fall on a triple loop. She dropped to third place overall in the standings behind Glenn and her USA teammate Sarah Everhardt.

After the final ranking was confirmed, Sakamoto appeared in the mixed zone and admitted to a lack of preparation being a factor with her free performance in particular.

“It’s early in the season, so I guess it’s a typical result,” she said. “I discovered a lot of issues at this event. I’m glad I was able to realise what I need to work on.”

“I was nervous not just at the beginning, but all the time. I could really hear my heart beating.

“I’m not always confident in my first event. It’s a competition where I can see how much I’m capable of and it’s a bit of a gamble. In the past, I was really nervous in both my first short and free of the season. Recently, I think it’s become one or the other.”

Overall, she felt that the new free is coming along nicely and she I getting more comfortable performing it.

“There are elements in the choreography and movements from the musical that are incorporated throughout the performance, so I would like to really show that off. I think it’s something I’ve been able to do thanks to my experience and getting older.”

The number of female skaters both in Japan and overseas attempting triple Axels and quadruple jumps has been gradually increasing. Sakamoto has also been honing her skills to increase the difficulty of her programmes. Sakamoto included two triple Lutzes and two triple flips in her free at Lombardia and is also preparing to perform a new jump combination.

“I wasn’t able to do it today, but I was planning to include an Euler and a triple Salchow after the second double Axel.”

Another talking point was her decision to dye her hair blonde at the end of the August. While there was speculation this was for her “Chicago” free, Sakamoto explained it was purely coincidence.

“I wasn’t thinking about it, but it just turned out that way,” she laughed. “I originally had planned to make a gradation with my hair colour, but I didn’t want it to look like pudding as the colour faded, so I bleached it all. Then people around me said, ‘You’re starting to look like Chicago,’ and I thought, ‘That’s true!’ I guess it worked out well.”

At her first Grand Prix assignment in Canada last month, Sakamoto fell twice in her free and came second in the segment but held on to comfortably win by virtue of her short performance. She goes into this weekend’s NHK Trophy in Tokyo to try and book herself a place in what remarkably would only be her fourth senior Grand Prix Final next month.

Sakamoto will also be focusing in on important events over the next eighteen months as she aims to make her mark on skating history. Despite some early hiccups this season, she is still a heavy favourite to extend her record of consecutive World Championship victories. If she wins four titles in a row, she will be the first to do so since Carol Heiss, who won five from 1956 to 1960.

“Rather than aiming for a fourth consecutive victory, I’m thinking of this season and next season as one whole,” Sakamoto said. “I want to make this season one that leads into the Olympic season, rather than just dividing it into two parts. Of course, the upcoming World Championships will be very important as it will determine Olympic spots, so first of all I want to make sure I can participate there. Japanese Nationals will decide who will be sent to competitions in the New Year, so I’d like to step up another gear and do my best.”