Yuma Kagiyama

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Yuma has now won his third World silver medal (in addition to two Olympic silvers), so while he's very happy woth his comeback season, it's kind of an unfortunate trend. He seemed overwhelmed by all the love the crowd showed him; he was near tears when describing how they erupted into cheers of encouragement when he fell during his FS. Interestingly, the GOE on his first-ever 4F in competition was the exact same as Shoma's in the SP at Worlds, AKA the third-highest scoring 4F ever. He is already looking ahead to next season, and will increase his jump layout to feature four quads. Yuma plans to stay in Canada to choreograph his new free skate (I presume with Lori and Caro), and will continue to do his best to become a better skater. He aims to catch Ilia by the 2026 Olympics!

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Stunning pictures of Yuma at Worlds from Yoriko Suzuki, one of my favourite FS photographers on insta:

 

[4everchan]

Yuma's gala number was for me, one of the highlights of Worlds 2024. Looking forward to seeing his new programs.

 

[yuumagical]

Yuma's gala number was for me, one of the highlights of Worlds 2024. Looking forward to seeing his new programs.

Same here, glad to have voted for him.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

And the Free Skate:

 

[reader3]

Happy Birthday to Yuma for May 5th.

 

[Jeanie19]

 

[Arriba627]

Happy birthday to Yuma! I wonder if the fans were allowed to give him gifts at PIW, or strictly flowers. Wait, he's 21?! I thought he was 12! LOL.

 

[yuumagical]

Happy birthday to Yuma! I wonder if the fans were allowed to give him gifts at PIW, or strictly flowers. Wait, he's 21?! I thought he was 12! LOL.

Lol, he looked like he was 12 when he was 15... Now that he's 21, he finally looks like he's 15, lol.

It appears that Yuma had an incredibly fun time on his birthday, according to one of Kao's Instagram posts (scroll all the way to the right)!

 

[Arriba627]

@yuumagical The way they said someone else was 62 instead of 26, I thought maybe Yuma was supposed to be 12 and they switched it to 21! LOL. Hope he had a fun time and received lots of Snoopys!

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

Yuma gave an interview with World Figure Skating in mid-April. He says that he overall enjoyed Worlds and his progress throughout the season, and was very motivated by the high level of Ilia and Adam. He was extremely happy to win his first ISU Championship. After Worlds, Yuma spent time in Canada with Lori and Caro. They worked on improving his jump layout, movement quality, and GOE of his spins. He will be continuing to work with Caro, and he says that she was a huge help both artistically and mentally. His new free program was choreographed by Lori, and he describes it as a very challenging program, perhaps even more so than RIYBE, and he may show it off in the summer (likely during Dreams on Ice). He is still considering his SP. Yuma started to take one day off a week this season, which helped him feel refreshed (and I'm sure reduce injury risk). His goal for the next season is to surpass his previous scores and performances and score 300 points at his first competition.

Also, some people saw him practicing at Chukyo University over the weekend and apparently he's skating Sound of Silence as his SP currently, but alternating between a 4F and 4S as his opening jump, and his FS is a "flamenco" or "Latin-style" program (the music has not been identified, but the people who saw it seemed to like it)