Interview with Nana Takeda, Skate Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
As soon as Gregg, Gigi and I arrived in Ottawa for Skate Canada, we set up shop in the well-appointed Media Room and prepared for the event. With Gregg and Gigi tasked with getting the best photos possible during the event, it fell to me to set up the interviews with the Japanese team. This time, Japan was represented by men’s competitor Yasuharu Nanri, whom we had not previously met, and two ladies we know quite well, Fumie and Nana. Also present was Yuko Kawaguchi, who is the Russian national champion in pairs with her partner Alexander Smirnov. The Japanese delegation chief graciously accepted our interview requests with Yasuharu, Fumie and Nana, while coach Tamara Moskvina approved our request for Yuko.
We had met Nana exactly one year earlier, at the 2007 Skate Canada event in Quebec City. Nana was new to the senior Grand Prix series at that point, and had just come off a strong sixth-place finish. She would go on to a very successful year, winning the bronze medal at the NHK Trophy and finishing, as she had hoped she would, in the top six at the always-competitive All-Japan championship. Knowing that we were allotted only about ten minutes to speak to her, we pared down the questions to what we thought were the most pertinent.
Nana had had an average competition, finishing ninth and downgrading many of her jumps, although her spins and spirals were very high quality. As she entered the media room for the interview, we caught a glimpse of perhaps why this was the case – her right ankle was wrapped in an ice pack. Armed with an obvious leading question, we sat down to catch up on Nana’s progress since we last saw her. Interpreting, as she did for us a year ago, was Akiko Tamura of World of Skating. I have put Akiko’s translations into the first person.