Short Track Speed Skating is in Kazuki Yoshinaga’s blood – it’s just that he hasn’t always been aware of it.
His mother, Mika Kato, won three ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships silver medals in the early 1980s, and his aunt, Miyoshi Kato, represented Japan as a teenager in three Speed Skating events at the Lake Placid 1980 Olympic Winter Games.
Kazuki Yoshinaga (JPN) at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating (CAN) 2018©International Skating Union (ISU)
“I didn’t know anything about it until when I was in elementary school,” Yoshinaga said.
“I was at a training camp and there were coaches who had trained my mother back in the day, and they told me about her.”
The 20-year-old hails from Nagoya, where this weekend’s ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event takes place, and began racing at the age of eight.
Kazuki Yoshinaga (JPN) at the ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships (CAN) 2018©International Skating Union (ISU)
He’s since become a very bright prospect, taking gold with Japan’s Men’s 3000m Relay team at the 2018 ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships, and claiming a debut ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating victory in the 1500m in Calgary the following season.
The sports science student has also picked up ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships Relay bronze and three further ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating medals, and is looking forward to this weekend’s competition.
Kazuki Yoshinaga (JPN) at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating (CAN) 2018©International Skating Union (ISU)
“I am happy to be able to compete in front of my friends and well-wishers,” he said, although delivering on home ice hasn’t always been comfortable for him, having under-performed at an ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event in Nagoya during the 2015/16 season.
“I became too serious and didn’t do that well. I started out a little nervous, and tightened up,” he said, acknowledging that it was a feeling he was to experience again during the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics.
“I felt I was able to do my best, give 100 percent,” he said. “Afterward, looking back on it, I realized that wasn’t the case. I had tightened up again and felt that I could have done more.
“It was a competition I’d aspired to compete in for so long. The atmosphere was incredible.”
Yoshinaga finished 13th in the 1000m in the Republic of Korea, was handed a penalty in the 1500m, but was, however, part of the Japan team that came a respectable seventh in the 5000m Relay.
The youngster’s goal now is not only to represent Japan at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, but to take the top step of the podium, thereby boosting the sport back home.
“Short Track is not that popular,” he said. “If I can win a gold medal, that’s something that could raise its profile.
Kazuki Yoshinaga (JPN) at the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating (CAN) 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
Although Japan has enjoyed a strong presence on Olympic Speed Skating podiums, the country’s Short Track Speed Skating success has been significantly less, having collected one gold and two bronze medals since the sport joined the Olympic programme in Albertville in 1992.
Yoshinaga wants to address this imbalance and recalls his experience in taking Relay bronze at the 2017 Asian Winter Games, where he faced opponents from south-east Asia as well as world-class skaters from China and South Korea.
Kazuki Yoshinaga (JPN) at the ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Champpionships 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
“I thought that was really cool,” he said. “It was like, ‘This is a sport for everybody, no matter where they come from’.
“I learn a lot from watching overseas skaters. This past year, I’ve made progress in my skating technique, and also worked hard at coming from behind in a race. That’s important because I had always preferred to be in front.”
Yoshinaga will have learned much from one particular overseas skater: his role model, Russia’s Victor An.
“I’ve competed against An but we’ve never spoken. He is simply so strong. He’s amazing.”
If Yoshinaga’s classmates at Chukyo University believe their fellow student is living the dream, the man himself wishes he could be a little more like them.
Kazuki Yoshinaga (JPN) at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2019©International Skating Union (ISU)
“Training and competing doesn’t give me a lot of time for school. I’m extremely busy, but if I had more time I would like to be like other students – enjoying going to classes and things like that.”
