http://news.ph.msn.com/regional/article ... id=5156574By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 8/13/2011Figure skater Takahashi banks on French flair to win
Japanese figure skating star Daisuke Takahashi is looking to the expertise of top French choreographer Muriel Boucher-Zazoui to help him land gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics.Takahashi, the first Japanese man to win an Olympic medal with his bronze in Vancouver and the first to win a world title in 2010, has travelled to Boucher-Zazoui's training group in Lyon for an intensive two-week programme.
Ice dance specialist Boucher-Zazoui has worked with some of the world's top skaters including former Olympic and world ice dancing champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France.
After struggling to fifth at this year's world championships the 25-year-old Takahashi hopes that her flair will help him compete with the up-and-coming generation of skaters in the coming years.
"It's the first time that I've been in Lyon," Takahashi told AFP as he took a break from training at Lyon's Dance Academy.
"I needed to develop my skating technique. It's not that I'm not good but you can always improve certain things with the help of people who are globally recognised for their competence.
"I'm really happy to be in Lyon, very satisfied with the work. I feel that I need more than the planned two weeks."
Takahashi said that he had always admired the skating of 2002 Olympic champions Anissina and Peizerat and former world champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, who were also coached by Boucher-Zazoui.
"My aim of course is to be ready for the 2012 world championships (in Nice, France) but the overriding ambition is to be at my peak for the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 and it's with this in mind that I've come to Lyon.
"Last season was very tough I didn't know whether I wanted to continue to skate of stop," he said.
"I lacked stability on the jumps and at the same time I saw the emeragance of a new generation of skaters," he said, referring to world champion Patrick Chan of Canada and silver medallist Takahito Kozuka of Japan.
He added that placing fifth at the worlds which were moved to Moscow after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, bizarrely made him lose his doubts.
"I decided to continue until the Sochi Games in 2014 but by rebuilding my career. That's why I've come here."
Boucher-Zazoui, whose former students have won an impressive 19 international medals, said that the Japanese skater was primarily interested in improving his choreography.
"Daisuke really wants us to look at his cheorography and that we work on the fundamentals of his skating and his expression," she said.
This year Takahashi plans to compete in two ISU Grand Prix events - the NHK Trophy in Japan and Skate Canada - along with the Japanese nationals and the world championships, although his participation in the Four Continents is doubtful.