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Tae Satoya Ready to Celebrate Her Gold Medal (February 12)
The moment the last skier finished her run on the moguls course at Iizuna Kogen, the crowd went wild. They knew that Tae Satoya of Japan had just clinched the gold medal in the freestyle skiing event--the first ever for a Japanese woman in the Winter Olympics. When Satoya herself heard the announcement that her score was the best of the competition, she raised her arms high in a victorious pose.In the pocket of her ski suit, Satoya was carrying a picture of her father, who had passed away in July 1997. He had been her coach, and his training helped make her good enough to enter, and win, the Japanese mogul-skiing championships at age 12. She came in eleventh at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994, and she was expected to do well in Nagano, too. Satoya spoke of her father after her win: "I felt like he was watching me ski. Of course, I was also skiing for myself."
While she waited for her press conference to begin after the event, Satoya sat in the competitors' seating area answering calls from her friends on her portable phone. Instead of crying with joy, she was laughing happily. "I've been in training, so I couldn't go out, but tonight I'm going to have a party with all my friends!" Her ears glinted with a pair of earrings she had received from her father. Along with his picture, they had accompanied her down the slope to her gold medal. (Shinano Mainichi Shimbun)
Satoya gets congratulated after her victory.