25 Years of Sticking to the Behind-the-Scenes Aesthetic | Hiroki Ito, the Serviceman Supporting the Strongest Team in Japanese Alpine Skiing History

Behind the athletes who stand on the podium, there is always a "shadow mastermind." Hiroki Ito - the man who built the era of the All Japan Alpine Team's "strongest ever" as a serviceman supporting Akira Sasaki and Kentaro Minagawa in the 2000s. We explore his philosophy and the path he has taken over the world for 25 years

Introduction

One man whose presence is indispensable in the history of Japanese alpine skiing is Hiroki Ito. He was the first Japanese to become a paid official serviceman for the Japan National Team, and a specialist who competed around the world for the longest period, spanning 25 years. Yet, Ito never basked in the spotlight. However, his masterful skills and actions, supported by his philosophy, have enabled many memorable skiers to shine

A story that began with a single voice

Ito was born and raised in Kamikawa, Hokkaido. During high school, he competed in the Inter-High School Championships as an alpine skier, placing 11th in the giant slalom. After entering Nippon Sport Science University, a comment from his classmate, top skier Keiji Oshikiri, changed Ito's destiny

"Would you like to work as a serviceman at Yamaha?" He joined Yamaha in 1990 and began his career as a serviceman without knowing anything. At the time, the company had well-known members such as Hiroaki Otaka, Chiaki Ishioka, and Nobuyuki Mori, and Takuya Ishioka and Keiji Oshikiri were still active

The world of service technicians is extremely unique and completely secretive. The type of skis the skiers they support use and how they tune them are top secret, and the world's top FIS races are a "mass of information" and a "fortress of secrets."

Ito went to Norway on his first overseas trip, and tried desperately to learn the techniques of his senior Yamaha colleagues and foreign servicemen by imitating them, but he didn't have enough knowledge or equipment. He struggled day after day, feeling anxious, but he says he learned a lot from Gaspar Millan, who was known as a top serviceman at the time. In this way, Ito built up his skills and experience during his seven years at Yamaha

Japan's first "paid official serviceman"

In 1998, after the Nagano Winter Olympics, the Japan team transitioned to a new structure. Around this time, Yamaha announced its withdrawal from skiing, and Ito was struggling to decide what to do next. Toshimasa Furukawa, head coach of the All Japan National Team, chose him as the official serviceman for the Japan team. This was the first time in the history of Japanese alpine skiing that Ito had a paid, dedicated serviceman

From the year of the Nagano Olympics, he began traveling around the world competing with the next generation of athletes, including Minagawa Kentaro, Sasaki Akira, Hirazawa Gaku, and Uraki Kenta

His biggest mission as a service technician during the World Cup tour is to travel with the athletes to the race venues, take care of their gear when they take part in the race, and tune their skis to win according to the snow quality and course conditions on the day. The athletes basically left everything else, except for tuning, to Ito

The edges are finished to a bevel angle of 0.5 degrees and 86 degrees (angle of the edge relative to the sole surface) for slalom, regardless of the athlete. This 86-degree edge angle is the ideal angle for Japanese athletes, determined by Ito based on his accumulated experience. He believes that it is not wise to change the edge angle depending on the athlete's style or snow quality, and this is a belief that Ito has adhered to up until now

Incidentally, Ito was surprised to learn that Marcel Hirscher, the undisputed champion who reigned supreme in the W-CUP scene for many years and set unprecedented records, had an edge angle of 85 degrees. This is because, without sufficient power, the grip is too strong and the edge catches, making it difficult to control the skis as desired. Just one degree can make a big difference in ski control, making it a battle of strategies unique to the world of speed, where every tenth of a second counts

, one of the athletes Ito supported at the time,
asked

From here on, Kenta Uraki, an athlete Ito supported at the time, appeared as the interviewer, and they reminisced about those days in conversation. Uraki currently lives in Austria and is also the representative of Expanda Co., Ltd., the exclusive distributor of KASTLE skis in Japan. Meanwhile, Ito currently works for Goldwin Co., Ltd., and serves as an advisor and director at FISCHER TUNING BASE, a FISCHER directly managed store. This is how Kanda and Innsbruck are connected online..

Supporting a memorable achievement in Japanese alpine history

(Uraki) - Mr. Ito, how many years have you been working as a serviceman?

"It's been a little over 25 years. I normally spent 200 days overseas each season, and sometimes as many as 250 days. The reality is that you have to put in that much effort to get results."

- Mr. Ito leaves a strong impression as a serviceman with a longer career than anyone else and who has nurtured strong players. You became an official serviceman for the Japan team in 1998, and when did you start supporting Kentaro and Akira?

"After the Nagano Olympics, I focused mainly on Kentaro for the four years until the next Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. Kentaro's roughness was obvious in Nagano and he didn't race as well as I'd hoped, but in 2000 at Kitzbuehel he came in sixth, an incredible result, just 1.38 seconds behind winner Mario Matto. Given my confidence in Kentaro's high potential, this result was only natural, and I thought he still had a lot to learn.

Around that time, Akira dropped out of university and moved to Innsbruck, Austria, where he began living alone. I joined him there, so I think my relationship with Akira began in 2001."

- It was in 2003 that Akira came in second place in the Wengen W-CUP

"Akira's first run time put him in seventh place, just 0.57 seconds behind Rocca, who had taken the lap, and Kostelic of Croatia. But in his second run, Akira made no mistakes and posted a perfect lap time, still a huge 0.53 seconds ahead of Rocca. If he had been able to finish within 0.5 seconds of the leader in his first run, he would have won. If that had happened, the Japanese alpine skiing world might have been different to what it is today."

However, with Akira coming in second in the W-CUP three times and Kentaro winning a prize, the athletes Ito supported have achieved great things that have left their mark on the history of Japanese alpine skiing

"Yes, I was very happy with the players' hard work."

Ito-ryu and his relationship with the athletes

- Servicemen and players are very close. I think it's very important to build a relationship of trust, but when players don't get the results they want, they tend to get depressed and sulk. How did you interact with the players at times like that?

"I thought about a lot of things. For example, Kentaro loved Utada Hikaru's songs, so I made sure his favorite music was playing when we got in the car, and I created an environment where he could go to practice feeling motivated. Of course, we fought too. I'd say things like,
"Don't worry about such trivial things, you're a bad skier so it can't be helped, just practice more" (laughs). I was young too, so I couldn't think of any clever things to say and could only throw straight pitches.

But as a serviceman, I wanted to make sure their skis were perfectly prepared. So when they weren't feeling well, I didn't want them to think, 'Oh! My skis are going great today,' but rather, 'Today's no good either...' I wanted them to think, 'Oh! My skis are going great today!' That's why I would tune them up, taking into account the snow conditions and training environment in advance, and we would watch videos together to study what the problem was. I was always trying to find opportunities to help them get better."

-So the role of a serviceman is not just tuning up the car. He also does a lot of things, like creating the right environment and speaking to the players. After all, he's with the players almost 24 hours a day

"Yes, but because many of the players had a strong sense of professionalism at heart, they were very understanding, and when you do things like that with all your heart, it's a matter of whether the players notice that. I think that's the important thing."

--I was a player myself, so I can see now that if you have a clear long-term goal, today's results don't matter. In fact, you can learn more from things that don't go well. Are you able to realize that? It's very important to have that mentality, but the fact is that most players can't do that. In fact, that was the case for me too (laughs). Now I think that someone who can make you realize that is an excellent serviceman

"Servicemen are there to help the athletes improve. I've been lucky enough to do it for a long time, and I think people around me think, 'You're lucky because you've been paired with good athletes,' but Kentaro and Akira also went through periods of depression when they weren't performing well. I believe that the support I gave them, thinking of ways to help them improve, was a factor in their ability to compete at the world's top level. When Kentaro was in poor form, I was with him in deciding which races he should enter and whether he should skip."

―You were able to make accurate decisions because you had a long-term goal and supported them. I think both Kentaro and Akira were really good players. I think Ito's support was also a big factor in that

Kentaro and Akira

-What was fundamentally different about Kentaro and Akira compared to the other players?

"They both had an overwhelming sense of professionalism. Although their personalities were completely different, they both had an extraordinary determination to be number one in Japan and to reach their goal of winning the W-Cup."

-When I was a player, we both had a period where we were both on the same team, but they were certainly very different (laughs). I think he was driven by the idea that "I absolutely have to become the best in the world, and what do I have to do now to achieve that?" Akira was more like, "If I'm not the best in the world, there's no point in doing it," and I think he was that strong of a mind. I think that to become truly strong, it depends on how much of that mind you have, and how much guidance you receive from those around you, such as your parents and childhood coaches.
What was so good about the Japanese team at that time? I think there was something more to that strength than just individual ability.

"There's always a key person around those athletes. Back then, yes, all the staff got along well. I'm not sure if the athletes got along well with each other (laughs), but there were the service staff, trainers, coaches, and Kodama Osamu, Yamanaka Shigeru, and Murasato Toshiaki who coordinated them. We were always in constant communication, and if there was a problem we would all consult each other. We also cooperated with manufacturers while we had to test their new product developments, and if we had time we would water the course. Everyone was involved in all sorts of things, so we all worked together."

- What I remember most about Mr. Ito at that time is that we would always go out drinking together at the hotel bar at night. Those times were really important for communication. I feel like the bond between the team staff was strong

"Maybe it was because we were drinking, but we would say some harsh things to each other, and each other would say some harsh things to us. Kentaro and Akira were also mischievous in their teens, so they would sometimes snap at the coaches. The coaches would sometimes tell us things like, 'You need to manage the players more properly.' But I think that was a really good thing. Even though we clashed, we were able to share all kinds of information. It wasn't just a superficial relationship, we were involved on a much deeper level. And we were serious about it because we just wanted to make the players stronger."

Above all, Ito has competed on the world stage with his players, cherishing the trust and connection they share, and the bond he has with the players of that time remains strong to this day

Information is the lifeblood of service personnel

-In addition to tuning up the athletes' skis, service technicians were also involved in a tremendous information warfare on a global scale back then

"That's right. If I went to the W-CUP, I had to go drinking with all the servicemen (laughs). I generally knew where each serviceman was, so I would go out of my way to go there and drink to get information."

- I was also the head coach of the Japan team, and it was the same for coaches. The players had a lot to do and only interacted with each other on the mountain, but it was very important for the staff to gather information outside and reflect it in strengthening the players and the team

"That's right. I even ran around getting confidential information so that Akira could wear skis used by top overseas skiers in competitions."

- In the days before the internet, we didn't know anything, but we just did the best we could, but now information is much easier to obtain than it was in the past, and with so much information available, it's inevitable that players will be able to absorb it well and find better methods, so I hope that future players will continue to move in a positive direction

"That's true. When it comes to developing athletes, there is always the issue of funding, but there is an overwhelming amount of information available these days, so if you can find the right information yourself and use it effectively, I think you can become an athlete who can compete on the world stage."

A place where you can see Ito's skills

After competing in FIS races overseas for a long period of 25 years, Ito now demonstrates his expert tuning techniques as a technical advisor at FISCHER TUNE BASE, a ski facility directly managed by FISCHER in Kanda, Tokyo's ski town

Fischer skis and boots are displayed in the store, and you can purchase gear there. Of course, they also offer a wide variety of tuning services. You can even have your own skis tuned up by Ito-san. Akira Sasaki is said to often visit the store

"Having your skis tuned by a professional can make a big difference to your skiing. Tuning can vary depending on your skill level, the type of snow, the type of mountain, how you want to ski, and your preferences. I highly recommend giving it a try."

If you're looking to give your skis the highest quality tuning, or if you're a current alpine racer or a fan of the FIS W-CUP and want to hear stories from past skiers, why not visit FISCHER TUNING BASE to meet Ito? Ito is always busy, but if you're lucky, you might be able to catch up with him

FISCHER TUNING BASE

Located in Kanda, Tokyo, it is the first space in Japan to specialize in the FISCHER brand. The concept is to be a base that can provide "high-quality techniques," "knowledge and service," and "wide-ranging information" to help many people enjoy skiing more comfortably and easily. It stocks all of FISCHER's latest models, and offers luxurious benefits that can only be found at a brand-owned store, such as ski tuning and maintenance services that can be used as a set with product purchases

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Interview cooperation: Goldwin Co., Ltd. | Kesle Ski Japan Exclusive Agent / Expander Co., Ltd. Representative Kenta Uraki