A Tribute to the People of Japan: Takeshi Honda's "Don Quixote" by Leon (Ludwig) Minkus

Takeshi Honda (Left) with Daisuke Takahashi

As the third installment in my series of posts to pay tribute to the people of Japan through honoring their figure skaters, who are a credit to their amazing country, I am profiling the great front-runner champion in Japanese men's figure skating history: Takeshi Honda. Today is also Takeshi's 30th birthday, which provides an additional reason to pay homage to this skating star.

Happy Birthday, Takeshi!

Takeshi burst on to the skating scene as a precocious teenager, winning his first Japanese National title at age 14. He finished 13th at his first World Championships in 1996, and steadily climbed the ladder (with the exception of two finishes that were lower than the previous year in '98 and '00), culminating in a bronze medal at the 2002 World Championships in Nagano, Japan---the first medal for a Japanese man since Minoru Sano won World bronze 25 years earlier.

Takeshi repeated this feat the following year at the Worlds in Washington, D.C.

Over the course of his career, Takeshi won six Japanese National titles, the inaugural 4-Continents Championship in 1999, nine Grand Prix medals, and the 2003 Asian Winter Games title. During his career, Takeshi was the only world-class Japanese men's singles skater on the scene. His accomplishments and presence on the world-stage, made him a forerunner and a role model for up-and-coming Japanese skaters. Takeshi really put men's figure skating on the map in Japan. Today, the Japanese men are a growing force in skating. The reigning World Champion and Olympic bronze medalist is Daisuke Takahashi, Nobunari Oda is a perennial medal winner on the Grand Prix circuit, Takahiko Kozuka turned a lot of heads by winning 2 golds during the Grand Prix this season, and Yuzuru Hanyu is the 2010 World Junior Champion.

Though he was often an inconsistent competitor, Takeshi's pure jumping-talent was the key to his early successes. At the 2002 Olympics, commentator Scott Hamilton said that Takeshi was one of the most gifted jumpers that he's ever seen! As Takeshi's career progressed, he also became a more musical, artistic skater. He was always a likable athlete, and though he was never known to emote too much on the ice, his raw talent had the ability to excite audiences. I remember, in particular, that his 2003 Worlds freeskate to music from Riverdance, complete with fast-staccato footwork sequences, was a crowd favorite. Unfortunately for Takeshi, after winning his second World bronze medal, he was plagued by injuries and never competed at a World Championship again. He retired from competitive skating in 2006 and now serves as a commentator and coach.

It's amazing to me that Takeshi peaked at the age of 21 in 2003. More often than not, male figure skaters continue to get better with age, and peak in their mid-to late 20s, but in Takeshi's case, since he had started to win medals so young, for him, at the age of 21 he almost considered old! (Michelle Kwan experienced a similar phenomenon. Her career at the senior level started at age 12, so by the time she was 20, people thought she was ancient!) It's unfortunate that serious injuries kept him from competing at the World stage again, because he never really fulfilled his full potential, but I am nevertheless grateful to have witnessed Takeshi's career. My sister and I always enjoyed Takeshi's skating. Though I'm not sure that I ever heard him interviewed, he always presented himself in such a humble way, that I always imagined him to be a very nice, pleasant person. He was a classy skating champion, and a good representative of Japan. I miss seeing him skate!

As a two-time Olympian, Takeshi had the honor of competing in his home country in the 1998 Games in Nagano, where he finished 15th, and at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he finished just off the podium in 4th. In the short program, which is the video I've posted below, Takeshi skated better than I've ever seen. He executed a quadruple toe loop, triple toe loop combination, and finished third, behind Russian Alexei Yagudin (the eventual gold medalist) and America's Timothy Goebel (the eventual bronze medalist). In the freeskate, Takeshi skated well, but made a few minor errors and couldn't hang on to a medal. With Yagudin and Goebel skating tremendous performances, not to mention the outstanding redemptive freeskate from Evgeni Plushenko-- who had finished a surprising fourth in the short after falling on a quad attempt-- but rallied to win the silver medal, it was exceedingly difficult for Takeshi to squeak out a medal with a couple of mistakes.

While I'm sure he was disappointed, after coming so close, his cumulative effort in Salt Lake City was impressive, and something to be proud of. You can't scoff at a 4th place finish at the Olympics, although, in some ways it may be the hardest finish to swallow, as it's so close to the medals. I'm also sure that Takeshi never imagined it would be his last Olympic appearance. He was only 20-years-old in 2002, and was planning on continuing to compete and contend for an Olympic medal at the 2006 Games, when he would only be 24 (theoretically, in the ballpark of the peak age for male figure skaters).

In any case, despite ending his career on a bitter note after suffering through injuries, Takeshi is still an important figure in Japanese figure skating. I am sure that he, personally, and as an athlete, is a major influence in the careers of the current Japaense men's skating stars: Takahashi, Oda, Kozuka, and Hanyu.

I hope you enjoy watching Takeshi's wonderful Olympic short program to music from the ballet "Don Quixote" by Leon (Ludwig) Minkus. Also note that in this video, you will see Takeshi's coach, Doug Leigh, at the boards. Doug Leigh also coached great Canadian champions Brian Orser and Elvis Stojko, who each have 2- Olympic silver medals to their credit. Doug did a great job working with Takeshi, and this short program is a perfect example!