Mao Asada
TOKYO (AFP) ― Japan’s two-time world figure-skating champion Mao Asada vowed to carry on training “toward my dream” despite suffering the loss of her mother and biggest supporter last week.
Kyoko Asada, 48, died after a battle with liver cirrhosis early on Friday at a hospital in their hometown of Nagoya, while Mao was flying home after pulling out of the Grand Prix final in Quebec City, Canada.
Mao Asada’s management agency IMG said the skater would not change her immediate schedule, including the national championships next week which will serve as trials for the world championships in Nice, France, in March.
After finishing runner-up to her rival Kim Yu-na of South Korea at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Asada has repeatedly said she would go for gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.
“It will satisfy my mother if I never fail to continue doing what I should toward my dream, as I promised to my family while she was alive,” the 21-year-old Asada said in a statement released by IMG.
“So I wish to work hard in training as before.”
Asada’s mother had been the one to encourage her daughter to start skating at the age of 5 along with her elder sister Mai, and since then, the mother-daughter team has worked together, often called a “three-legged race.”
In 2005, she won the Grand Prix final at the age of 15 but could not compete at the 2006 Turin Olympics because she was too young. She went on to win another Grand Prix final in 2008 and the world championships in 2008 and 2010.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
