This is a draft of an article that appeared in the hard copy Australian magazine OzSkater
in the January 2008 edition. The final article may have been edited prior to publication.
Injury Slows World Champion Ando
by J. Barry Mittan
Miki Ando, the 2007 ladies world champion, will have a difficult time repeating her success in 2008. No lady has repeated as world champion since Michelle Kwan in 2000 and 2001 and the ladies field is much deeper now. In addition, Ando must survive a crowded field at Japanese Nationals, which she last won in 2005.
After missing Worlds in 2006 and finishing only 15th at the Olympics, the win at Worlds in 2007 was a surprise. "No one expected anything from me," Ando said "I just did my job and tried to enjoy skating. I was so happy because I didn't make any mistakes in the short or the long."
"This year will be much harder because of the changing rules," said the 20-year-old. "There are more penalties for errors on jump takeoffs. I will have to change the entry to jumps that I have done for seven or eight years in the same way and it is so hard to change. The judges said that my sit spin was too high so I have to get lower on it. So I'll have to practice it more and more."
Ando started the season with a silver medal at Skate America, but only finished fourth at the NHK Trophy in Japan, failing to make the Grand Prix Final for the first time. Complicating things for Ando this season is a shoulder injury she received from a fall at the Japan Open in the summer. "My shoulder was badly sprained and it's possible I may need surgery if the muscle is torn," she said. "But that would take three months to recover so I'll wait until the end of the season if I need it. It hurts me when I try to spin or jump and even on footwork. I've had to switch to my other shoulder for the Biellmann position on my spiral and that was hard.
Nikolai Morozov has coached Ando for the past year and a half. She trains during the summer at the Ice House in Hackensack, New Jersey and as often during the season as possible. Her workout schedule includes three to four hours on ice, six days a week, but limited off ice work, only stretching before she goes on ice.
When she is Japan, Ando trains at the Nagoya University ice rink, working with Yuko Monna. She is studying about sports at the university. "I'm in the second year of a four year program, " she said. "We do all of the different sports and learn about the training and conditioning for each one. My dream is to be a coach."
"It's very hard to train in Japan," Ando explained. "I have to travel about 40 minutes to the ice rink and I can only get ice between six and eight in the morning and between ten and twelve at night. All the sessions are public, because there is no private ice in Japan. All the Japanese people love me now and little kids are always coming up to me on the ice to take photos and ask for autographs. And all the television and radio and newspaper people are always following me around. So it is difficult to train."
Ando's short program for this season includes a triple lutz-double loop, triple flip and double axel. Her long contains a triple lutz-double loop, triple toe-double loop-double loop, triple lutz, triple flip, triple salchow, triple loop, and double axel. She is no longer trying the triple axel although she has landed them in practice as far back as 2003.
"I'll try to add a double axel-triple toe to my program because it's the same level as a triple axel," she said. "I don't know what else I might try. Right now it's enough for me. I had a triple salchow-triple loop and I've done a triple lutz-triple loop-triple loop in practice just for fun. I like the loop and the salchow, but I hate the triple toe. And I don't like the double axel because mine is kind of bad right now."
Ando, who started skating when she was nine and landed a triple within two years, was the first woman to land a quadruple jump in competition in 2003, when she landed a quad salchow. She first landed the jump in practice two years earlier and has since done the quad loop and quad toe loop in practice. "We want to add the quad salchow for Worlds in Sweden because Salchow was Swedish," Morozov added. "Last year, we didn't need it, but this year it's important."
Morozov choreographs all of her programs. She is using "Samson and Delilah" by Camille Saint Saens for her short program and "Carmen" be George Bizet for the long, both new this season. "I went to Nikolai because I liked the first program that he did for me so much," Ando said. "I did not have high level choreography before that."
"I wanted to make a more emotional, womanly, sexy program," Ando stated. "And Carmen is famous, especially for skaters. I'm so shy that it's hard for me to be expressive on the ice. I couldn't move my hips or my eyes to be sexy. But Nikolai has been teaching me sexy moves and I have been watching Katarina Witt doing Carmen on television. I have been learning from her."
Off ice, Ando enjoys talking with friends, dancing, shopping and cooking. "I can even make borsch now," she said. "Sometimes I go in to New York City to see the Broadway shows. I've already seen Cats and Chicago and I want to see more. But the city is too big for me. I like quiet areas."
