Miho Nonaka aiming for a gold medal at the Paris Olympics
The Tokyo Olympics have made Japan excited by winning 58 medals, the highest number ever. Not only the traditional arts of judo, wrestling, and baseball medals, but also the breakthrough of new events such as skateboarding became a hot topic. Miho Nonaka, who won the silver medal in the new sport climbing, is also one of the leading players in this tournament.
Approximately two and a half months have passed since the end of the Olympics, and now that the busy days as a silver medalist have settled down, Nonaka looks back on those two dense days.
“I didn’t really feel that I had won a medal right after the Olympics, I just thought that it was over. Two months after that, I’m really glad that I got another medal. It must have been completely different with and without it. It was a really good opportunity to achieve the results of our efforts and to have many people see them. “
Looking at each result of the final again, he won the silver medal with 3rd place in speed, 3rd place in bouldering, 5th place in reed, and 45 points overall. Among them, speed was especially helpful to Nonaka. Won the first Japanese bronze medal of the same category at the World Cup Salt Lake City Tournament in May this year. At the domestic tournament in June, he recorded 7.88 seconds, the first Japanese girl to reach the 7-second range, and was strong enough to compete with the world’s top-level athletes who specialize in speed. Nonaka feels that the good results of speed at the Olympics were a major factor in winning the silver medal.
“I was confident that I was on the podium at the Salt Lake City Games, and I was able to break the 8 second barrier at once, and I was able to frequently set the 7 second time from practice. In the qualifying, I was able to set my personal best of 7.55 seconds, which gave me an opportunity to get on the flow. I think the speed was really great. “
When he broke his own Japanese record at 7.74 seconds for the first qualifying run, he set a new record of 7.55 seconds for the second run. What kind of mental state was that moment when he updated his personal best twice under the pressure of the first Olympics and the first qualifying event?
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