Coaching Change Energizes Muramoto

Satsuki Muramoto

Nov. 2, 2007
Article & Photo © J. Barry Mittan 

Japan's Satsuki Muramoto didn't plan to be a skater. "My mother used to play basketball and my father was a swimmer," she said. "They were not skaters. I just went to the rink one day with some friends and liked it. I played some tennis before but I wasn't good at other sports." She didn't start skating until she was eight, but had landed her first triple toe loop within four years.

Last season, she included a triple salchow-double toe loop in both programs, adding a double axel-double toe and triple toe-double toe-double toe for the long. She also includes a triple loop but no triple flip or lutz. "I'm working on my triple flip and could land it pretty well before I was injured," she noted, "but I still have a long way to go. I'm sort of practicing a triple toe-triple toe, but I need to learn all the triples."

"The last two years were not good for me because I didn't get the jumps," Muramoto added. "Then I moved to Kyoto to train with Mie Hamada and Yamato Tamura last summer. I live in Kobe, so I have to take the train two hours each way to train. I really like Mie. She's strict but fun to be with. Yamato is very funny. If I get in trouble, he makes me feel better. They taught me to have fun and made me skate well."

She was ninth in seniors at Japanese Nationals in 2007, a good result considering that she had injured her right foot three weeks before the championships and had to limit her practice time. She then finished 11th at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships, coming back from 21st in the short to finish 8th in the long. "I'll compete in juniors again this season," she said. "I want to come back to Junior Worlds and get a better ranking."

Previously, Muramoto won the silver at the Mladost Trophy in Zagreb in 2004 and placed fourth at the Junior Grand Prix in Norway in 2006. She started the 2007-08 season by finishing seventh at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid, New York. Then she won the silver at the Sofia Cup in Bulgaria where she set personal bests for the short program and total score.

Tom Dickson choreographed her 2006-07 programs, both of which were new last season. The short program was "Quidam" from Cirque du Soleil, while the long was "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" by Michel Legrand. "I skate best with slow and classical music," Muramoto said, "but I like fast and upbeat music. My coach and choreographer usually choose my music, but I told my coach I wanted to use 'Quidam' because I had seen Yamato use it and she said it would fit me." For her exhibition program, she uses a vocal version of her free program music. For 2007-08, Muramoto said, "I'll definitely change my free program, but I may keep the short program."

The 17-year old is in 11th grade at Kobe Canadian Academy, where her favorite subject is science. "I plan to go to university to study sports sciences," she said. "I want to be a physiotherapist or trainer."

For fun, she said, "I just like to go shopping with my family and friends or just hang out. I watch many kinds of movies, both Japanese and English, and I like to read books that were made into movies." She has two pets, a hamster and a rabbit.