BARRY WILNER,AP Sports Writer
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – Side by side Nobua and Yuka Sato stand. Father and daughter. Olympic coaches. A pending Hall of Fame member and a former world champion skater, their paths intertwined like tracings on the ice.
The father, called Mr. Sato by virtually everyone, works with three-time Japanese national champion Takahiko Kozuka. Yuka, the 1994 women’s world champion, guides Jeremy Abbott of the United States.
“My first world championships as a competitor was 50 years ago here in Vancouver,” Mr. Sato said. “Now I am back with my daughter. It is just an unbelievable feeling and I am very happy.”
Skating is often a family affair – Kozuka’s father, Tsuguhiko, competed in the 1968 Olympics and now is part of his son’s coaching team.
But the Sato connection is striking because of its pedigree.
Mr. Sato was elected to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame this month. As a competitor, he won 10 Japanese championships and skated in two Olympics. As a coach, he’s been a major factor – some might say the biggest factor – in the rise of Japanese skating. His nation has a legitimate chance for several spots on the medals podium at these games, and Kozuka is among them.
This will be the 10th Olympics for the 68-year-old, who coaches in Nagoya, Japan.
“It’s been 50 years since I first appeared at my first international circuit and my path has been an evolutionary process with Japanese figure skating,” he said. “This is such a surprise and a dream come true and I am very honored to be elected to the World Hall of Fame.”
If Yuka Sato can emulate a fraction of her father’s coaching resume, she will be thrilled. She and husband Jason Dungjen, a two-time U.S. pairs champion, teach at the Detroit Skating Club, long a powerhouse training facility in the sport. She occasionally still skates in Stars on Ice, but knows her future is to follow her father’s path.
“I’ve been watching my dad working very hard for all these years and I am so happy to see him be accepted into something like this and to know his work has been recognized,” said Yuka Sato, who was coached by her father. “I was very touched when I found out and I am so proud of him.
“I’ve learned so much from my father, both as a skater and now as a coach, and just with everything. I really am so happy and feel so good to know he is sharing the boards with me at my first Olympics as a coach. I hope he is proud of me, as well.”
Mr. Sato doesn’t have to answer that with words; his beaming smile says everything.
He also recognizes that his daughter, 37, is at the lower end of the learning ladder. So he encourages her to be involved with his students, too, when they’re at events together.
“I ask him questions, for sure,” Yuka Sato said. “If I feel there’s something I am unsure about he always tells me there is no perfect answer. He will even say he doesn’t know. He’s honest with me. He gives me the best advice he can give. Thanks to his experience, he may have been through some moments and issues that I am experiencing.
“I won’t lie, I am nervous at my first (Olympics). But he lets me know that is OK, and that he gets nervous, too. Knowing how experienced he is and to have him around me here, it makes me feel stable.”
Abbott gets the same feeling from Yuka Sato, who skated in two Olympics, finishing eighth in 1992 and fifth in 1994. After the Lillehammer Games, she won the world championship in Chiba, Japan, the crowning moment of her competitive career.
In a way, Abbott also benefits from Mr. Sato’s expertise.
“She consults with her father a lot when she needs advice on something in coaching,” Abbott said. “He has coached some great athletes, including Yuka, of course. He has had so much experience.
“At my first Grand Prix with Yuka, which was NHK Trophy (in Japan), everyone was practicing, and to see them standing side by side, that was cool.”