The attitudes of the competitors of the Women’s Free Skate at the 2026 Winter Olympics have been so astonishingly different from the Olympics of previous years.
There was freedom, athletes burning with passion and experiencing a distinct joy from their sport, which was absent from the Olympics in 2022.
This year, these girls smiled and retreated away from the negative associations that are prevalent in this sport, and instead approached this high-stakes competition with positive attitudes.
Right now, the spotlight has mainly been on Alysa Liu’s iconic gold medal win, and the inspiring mindset that came with it.
But what inspired me the most about this winter season was Kaori Sakamoto’s journey.
Representing Japan’s Olympic Figure Skating Team, Kaori Sakamoto is a hard-working athlete who has proven her strong capabilities on the ice, as she has won six total national titles. In the Beijing 2022 Olympics, she took home a bronze medal in the Women’s Single event.
This is a testament to her exceptional performance on the ice.
However in this year’s Milano Cortina Olympics, the sentimental meaning of this event would be different, as this would be her last winter Olympics of her skating career.
Despite performing beautifully, with so much passion and athletic capability, she narrowly missed gold by just 1.89 points off Alysa Liu’s score.
Naturally, she was disappointed with this outcome and expected to do better.
Taking home a silver medal didn’t feel like a reflection of the growth that she achieved in the four years since the Beijing Olympics.
Watching her reaction through my computer screen was heartbreaking.
Although I have no technical knowledge of figure skating myself, I could empathize with the disappointment of working so hard on something, and it not being reflected in the way you wanted.
Yet, what inspired me so much was the way she handled this disappointment: with grace, self-reflection, and love from her team and her coach.
Although she was upset, she understood that her performance was much better than how she performed in Beijing.
With knowledge of this bittersweet moment, watching her win first place in women’s singles during the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague was incredibly satisfying.
Ending with a beautiful performance that reminisces on her past performances, she uses the song “Non, je ne regrette rien,” which translates to “No, I don’t have any regrets,” truly encapsulateing her mindset on and off the ice.
Despite not getting the results she wanted during Milano Cortina, she left everything on the ice during her final performance in Prague and got her much deserved finale to her skating journey.
I have nothing else to feel but so proud of how far Kaori Sakamoto has come, and how powerful her mindset is when it comes to herself and supporting her team.
She encouraged an environment that emphasizes enjoyment in such a competitive sport, and is the type of team player I aspire to be in my life.
Getting updates from her Instagram account and seeing all the positive banter between her and her teammates makes me so happy.
In a world where toxicity can heavily derive from competition and comparison, I love this mindset that the things we do are rather a competition against one’s past self.
It is a healthier and more introspective way to look at yourself and your environment.
Although I am sad to see this era of figure skating end, seeing these stories in real-time truly gives me the motivation to see the world from a different perspective.
I hope that others may receive these similar messages and apply them to their own lives. Is there anyone you look up to for their mindset on life? Let us know @HerCampusSJSU!