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| 2005.1.20 Ski Serviceman Hiroki Ito |
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Akira Sasaki is a multi-talented skier who became popular in Europe at the 02-03 FIS World Cup SL in Wengen by coming in 2nd place with a difference of 100/4 of a second from a 65th starting order.
This is my 5th season serving as his service staff. I would like to write about him here, being one of the closest people around him.
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People from different professional backgrounds (e.g. journalists, racers, coaches, etc.) all praise Akira by calling him a genius and mentioning his high skiing potentials. Even the skiers who train with him think Akira is retaining the current results and the first group without any hard work or effort.
I spend more than 250 days a year in training, racing, or just spending an ordinary day with him. The first priority in Akira’s mind is how to ski with pleasure. Then comes the strategies and trainings in order to win. From my point of view, he takes up a lot of his time on building up his body in order for him to evolve. People would call them efforts but those kinds of words do not match Akira. Meaning, his theory is “a tough body is indispensable in order to ski enthusiastically”, and being able to do so is the most important thing to him. Therefore, he never compromises on having fun in skiing, even during training.
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Last year, during the joint training with the USA team, he quit the training due to bad course setting while other racers were training without any complaints. But afterwards, when Bode came to the course and started training, he instantly went against the coach saying “are you trying to injure me!”.
There already were several times this year that Akira troubled the coaches by losing his temper due to bad course setting. People who don’t know Akira may say that he is just a self-centered skier. But these things happen solely because of Akira’s pursuit of skiing with pleasure. Maybe these types of sharp senses are those that belong only to the top skiers, like Akira, and is completely uncomprehendable to ordinary skiers.
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At the World Cup 1st round in Beavers Creek, Akira cut the finish line skiing backwards. He’s been doing so in either not-so-important or unsuccessful races as a fun attraction for the fans. But, amazingly, he did it in the World Cup! I am not going to write about this incident to stand up for him as his staff, but I’d like to write about what the actual on-the-spot speculations were.
The 1st run was not a fun run for Akira at all. Why he skied backwards at the finish line in a race competing against 1/100 of a second took most country’s coaches, staff, and racers by surprise and wonder. But at the scene, the spectators rooted and cheered for his action. There were a bit of talk about it between the 1st and the 2nd run, but was not taken up as a critical issue (if it were, the fussy Austrian team would have made it a problem at the meeting and requested for some kind of a penalty). But, before the start of the 2nd run, staff and coaches from every country were gossiping on what he might do next. Someone even requested for a somersault finish. Akira never becomes nervous before his start, so a lot of people blindly stop by to talk to him. He is so relaxed that his friend, Kily (Albrecht Kilian), takes photos with him with his mobile phone.
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| In Japan, opinions were against his action and the journalists seem to be writing whatever they want; though the facts seem boring, it was not a big topic on the spot. The other skiers must be happy with Akira’s finish since quite certainly their time would be better than that of a backward skier. There are some who say his action is an insult to the sport itself or that it goes against sportsmanship, but Akira never classified himself as an athlete to start with. Some worry that Akira’s actions may make other skiers take distance from him, or that coaches don’t mind him, or is causing trouble to the team, but those worries are completely unnecessary. Please keep supporting him just as you have up until now. |
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I’m frequently asked what kind of a person Akira is. My answer is always “a big kid”. His pursuit of something fun and concentrating on it until he is convinced, is just like watching over a young child. Skiing, for Akira, is not only a world to compete in but also a world to have fun. He knows perfectly well that it is not that easy to win races just by pure pleasure, but I want to be his service staff for the rest of his career.
Please look forward to what Akira might be able to do against the world with pure pleasure. |
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