日本跳台滑雪宿将葛西纪明的不老雄心

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Japan’s top ski jumper, Noriaki Kasai, is already thinking four years ahead to the next Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

俄罗斯红波利亚纳——日本顶级跳台滑雪选手葛西纪明(Noriaki Kasai)已经开始考虑四年后参加韩国平昌冬奥会的事情了。

For most athletes, presuming that they will qualify for another Olympic team would be considered audacious. But Kasai is no ordinary athlete. At 41, he is taking part in a record-tying seventh Winter Games (along with the Russian luger Albert Demchenko), a remarkable feat in any sport, let alone one fraught with peril like ski jumping.

对于大多数运动员来说，假定自己有资格入选下一届奥运代表队会被看做是放肆的举动，但葛西纪明并不是一名普通的运动员。41岁的葛西纪明是第七次出征冬奥会，参赛次数追平了俄罗斯无舵雪橇选手阿尔伯特·杰姆琴科(Albert Demchenko)的纪录。这在任何体育运动中都属于非凡成就，更不用说充满危险的跳台滑雪项目。

“I will try to get to an eighth Olympics,” Kasai said matter-of-factly three days before the opening ceremony.

在开幕式举行三天前，葛西纪明坦率地表示，“我会努力第八次出征奥运会。”

It was hard to tell whether Kasai was serious or simply paying lip service to his reputation as the iron man of a sport in which many jumpers retire when they reach their 30s. But given the surprising success of a jumper who is twice the age of some of his rivals here, his ambition cannot be discounted.

很难确信葛西纪明的话是认真的，还是为了维护铁人声誉说说而已。在跳台滑雪运动中，很多选手都会在30多岁时退役。但考虑到他以一些对手两倍的年龄所取得的惊人成绩，他的野心不可小视。

He said he was motivated to take part in the Sochi Games because he had not yet won a gold medal.

他表示自己之所以积极参加索契冬奥会，是因为还没有获得过金牌。

Kasai’s quest for a second Olympic medal began on Sunday on the normal hill. He finished eighth. He will also jump in the large hill event and the four-man team event.

周日，参加普通台比赛的葛西纪明开始了争夺第二枚奥运奖牌的征途，最终获得第八名。他还将参加大台比赛和四人团体赛。

Whether or not Kasai wins a medal here or makes it to the Winter Games in 2018, his legacy is largely complete. In fact, his résumé reads like a road map of modern ski jumping in Japan, which rose to prominence in the 1990s as its jumpers took advantage of their small size to fly farther, and was then undone by new equipment and rule changes introduced a decade ago to deter unhealthy weight loss in jumpers.

无论葛西纪明能否在本届冬奥会上摘得奖牌，能否参加2018冬奥会，他基本上都已经取得了非常全面的成就。实际上，他的履历展示了日本现代跳台滑雪的发展史。日本从20世纪90年代开始在这项运动上崭露头角，日本运动员利用自身身材瘦小的优势飞得更远。但10年前，由于新装备的出现，并且为了阻止跳台滑雪运动员不健康的减重行为，规则也做出了改变，日本失去了优势。

Against all odds, Kasai, the captain of the Japanese team, has also been part of the revival of Japan’s jumping program, which has received a lift from the emergence of several top-ranked female jumpers.

尽管困难重重，葛西纪明作为日本队的队长，推动了日本跳台滑雪运动的复兴。日本出现了几名顶级的跳台滑雪女运动员，给这一项目带来鼓舞。

He has done his part, too. In January, Kasai became the oldest jumper to win a World Cup event when he was victorious in Bad Mitterndorf, Austria. Kasai was ranked third in the world before the Olympics, his highest ranking since the 1998-99 season, and a leap from his 24th-place finish last season.

葛西纪明本人也取得了成就。今年1月，葛西纪明在奥地利巴特米特恩多夫取得胜利，成为赢得世界杯比赛的最年长的运动员。冬奥会之前，葛西纪明世界排名第三，这是他自1998–99赛季以来取得的最高排名，与上一赛季的排名第24名相比，有大幅提升。

“It’s been two years since my last victory,” Kasai said after winning an event last summer. “I was in my 30s then, and now I’m in my 40s, which makes me even happier and shows that I can still compete with the best in the world.”

“上一次获胜是两年之前，”葛西纪明去年夏天赢得一项赛事后表示。“当时我30来岁，现在我已经40岁了，这让我更快乐，也说明我仍然能与世界顶级选手竞争。”

Kasai has been diligent about staying in shape as well as changing his jumping style. Early in his career, he earned the moniker “kamikaze” for a fearless approach.

葛西纪明坚持不懈地保持体型健康，调整跳跃方式。在职业生涯早期，他因为无所畏惧的态度赢得了“神风”的绰号。

As with most jumpers, injuries have taken their toll. In 1994, he broke his left shoulder while training, and he broke it again four months later, forcing him to sit out the season. Balky knees have curtailed his workouts. Last week, he did not take practice jumps at the Olympic facility, deciding instead to go shopping, see friends and relax, while still tending to his duties as team captain.

就像大多数跳台滑雪运动员一样，伤痛给他们带来了不利的影响。1994年，葛西纪明训练时摔伤了左肩。四个月后，因为左肩再次受伤，他被迫退出了那个赛季的比赛。由于膝盖不适，葛西纪明减少了锻炼。上周，他没有到奥运场馆进行跳台练习，而是决定购物、见朋友、放松，与此同时，他仍然承担着队长的责任。

Kasai’s more judicious training schedule may have extended his career, said Satoshi Okazaki, a Japanese journalist who has written a book about Kasai.

日本记者冈崎敏(Satoshi Okazaki)曾写过一本关于葛西纪明的书。冈崎敏表示，可能是严谨的训练计划延长了他的职业生涯。

“It is an amazing fact that Kasai got a ticket to the Olympics seven times in a row,” he said by email. “However, the more surprising thing is that he is 41 years old and his condition for this Olympics seems to be the best compared to the previous six Olympics.”

“葛西纪明连续七次参加奥运会，这令人感到震惊，”他在邮件中写道。“然而，更令人吃惊的是他已经41岁了，但与前六届奥运会比，他这次的状态似乎是最好的。”

Kasai said the reason for his success has less to do with his training and more to do with his desire for continual improvement.

葛西纪明表示，自己的成功与训练没那么大的关系，更多是出于不断提高的欲望。

“There is no secret to my long career,” Kasai said on Saturday. “My regrets are my motivation.”

“没有什么保持漫长运动生涯的秘诀，”葛西纪明周六表示。“遗憾就是我的动力。”

Kasai’s road to the Olympics began in the small town of Shimokawa, in a remote part of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four largest islands. He took up ski jumping just a few years after Japan swept the men’s normal hill event at the Games in Sapporo in 1972, the year he was born.

葛西纪明的奥运之路始于北海道偏僻的小镇下川町，北海道是日本四大岛屿中最北端的岛屿。1972年，也就是葛西纪明出生的那一年，日本队在札幌冬奥会男子普通台比赛中大获全胜，几年之后，葛西纪明就开始练习跳台滑雪。

Kasai made his debut in a World Cup event in 1989 and made his Olympic debut in 1992 in Albertville, France, where he finished fourth in the four-man team event. In 1994, Kasai was part of another four-man team that won a silver medal at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

葛西纪明于1989年在世界杯赛中首次亮相，1992年在法国阿尔贝维尔首次参加冬奥会。1994年，葛西纪明在挪威利勒哈默尔参加冬奥会四人团体赛，并赢得银牌。

After falling as far as 51st in the world rankings and finishing as low as 49th in the Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, Kasai, who is 5 feet 10 inches and 137 pounds, has worked to stay in shape. A member of the Tsuchiya Home Ski Team, a corporate ski jump team in Hokkaido, he has also become a role model to younger jumpers who admire his ability to think of the long term.

葛西纪明的世界排名一度曾降至51名，在2002年盐湖城冬奥会中排名49。之后，葛西纪明仍然一直努力锻炼保持体能，他身高5英尺10英寸(约合1.76米)，体重137磅(约合62公斤)。作为北海道一家由企业赞助的跳台滑雪俱乐部，土屋住宅滑雪队(Tsuchiya Home Ski Team)的成员，葛西纪明也是年轻运动员的一个榜样，他们钦佩他眼光长远。

“It’s not possible in Europe for someone to have the same career as Kasai, over 40 years old,” said Janne Vaatainen, the Finnish coach of Tsuchiya Home Ski Team. “He’s seen so many things in his career. This is unbelievable that he’s willing to change.”

“在欧洲，运动员不可能拥有像葛西纪明一样长的运动生涯，他已经年过40，”土屋住宅滑雪队的芬兰籍教练扬内·韦泰宁(Janne Vaatainen)说。“他在职业生涯中经历了很多事情。他愿意去改变，这令人难以置信。”