Never mind that she earned a silver medal. Next time I will win the gold. There is a unique form of pressure on Japan's athletes. Competitors from every country face enormous expectations to win, to make the years of hard work and training pay off, to achieve greatness on the preeminent world stage. But whereas failure to win gold might cost Americans a fat endorsement contract, for Japanese a disappointing performance is even more dire, as individual failure is somehow wrapped up with a sense of national identity.
Failure is never just an individual matter in Japan.
Athletes always face the terror of being excommunicated from the group. Understanding the culture in which Japanese athletes compete makes watching their defeats all the more painful. The agony of gymnast Naoya Tsukahara, whose hopes for an individual all-around medal were dashed last Wednesday when he inexplicably fell off the pommel horse, was obvious as he seemed to sleepwalk through his other events. His body was limp, his expression blank. Hagiwara answered that she didn't shift smoothly between strokes and that her turns were poor.