Agence France-Presse
The streets of one town on the snowy Japanese island of Hokkaido are festooned with pink banners in support of one of its daughters –17-year-old Sara Takanashi, who is bidding to make Olympic history in the first women's ski jump.
If the schoolgirl wins the inaugural event in Sochi today, fireworks will shoot into the air above Kamikawa in celebration of her achievement, putting the hot-spring resort town on the map.
After winning 10 of 13 World Cup events contested this season, Takanashi is rated as the best gold-medal prospect among the 113 Japanese athletes competing at the Sochi Games.
Baby-faced Takanashi, who stands just 4ft 11ins tall, has been an Olympic poster girl for Japan along with Mao Asada, who is raring to avenge South Korean Kim Yuna’s women’s figure-skating gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Takanashi’s emergence comes amid a Winter Olympic title drought for Japan, who hauled a historic high of five gold medals – including two for ski jumping – when they hosted the 1998 Nagano Games. Since then, Japan have won only one gold.
A victory by Takanashi could help restore ski jumping as the Asian country’s main Winter Olympic sport and boost its profile in world sport ahead of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
When Japan hosted the Winter Games for the first time in 1972, they swept the normal-hill ski-jumping medals. But Japanese jumpers have stalled since Nagano after rules were changed to limit the length of skis – a move that some say has disadvantaged flyers who are not so tall.
“Sara’s gold-medal chance is 100 per cent. Haven’t you seen her jump?” said Masahiko Harada, who helped Japan win the large-hill ski-jumping team title in Nagano. “It can be 500 per cent.”
Harada, 45, hails from Kamikawa, where Takanashi was born into a family of ski jumpers.
Since the women’s World Cup tour was launched in 2011, she has lifted a record 19 World Cups in three seasons – eight in 2012/13 when she won the overall title, but finished runner-up to Sarah Hendrickson at the world championships.
The 19-year-old American, just back from a knee injury, is one of Takanashi’s main rivals.
“From the town of Kamikawa to the top of the world,” some 300 banners declare along shopping streets in the town. Hundreds of flags emblazoned with the name “SARA” hang from windows.
Pink was chosen because “it looks fine in snow,” according to an official in the town of 4,000.
“The whole town is painted pink,” said Kamikawa’s mayor, Yoshiji Sato, before leaving for Sochi on Saturday with a group of supporters including Takanashi’s family.
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