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Six-time consecutive winner of the Norikura Hill Climb while in his 50s! Great story, indeed!
This poses a perennial question for me, as an Aussie. There is a healthy number of Aussies in the pro peloton and we have a strong track record in cycling, particularly on the track, but also on the road. Having said that, my experience suggest the cycling culture is stronger in Japan, which has had some success globally on the track, Koichi Nakano soon comes to mind, but I reckon Japan has under-achieved on the road despite the strong culture and the physical attributes that seem to make Japanese more suited to cycling success than they actually have been. Am I right? Any theories why? Cynically, I'm inclined to believe that part of the problem at least is the generally strong aversion among Japanese to dope, but I am sure it's not so simple. Perhaps a lack of formal club racing? I don't know. I'd be interested to know what people think.
Seems to be common here. And everywhere, I guess. Cycling is not a cheap sport in the way, say, football can be, so I guess that may have some effect.Actually, Murayama san ...didn't start cycling till 35.
That makes sense, too.For others, the Keirin riders are on such good cash that there is no need to go to Europe or even the Olympics.
Nakano was the exception. Driven by 10 world titles.
Beppu and Arashiro (and Yonamine, I guess) are still having to pave their own way if they want to make it.
This seems to be the key. And it doesn't look likely to happen anytime soon now. To be honest, much as I would dearly love to be seeing a Japanese team blazing a trail on the world stage, I have to admit I would really just love to have a world stage back again.If Japan wants to make a big impression on the world stage, it probably needs a home start up like Sky in the UK or Orica in Aus.
For others, the Keirin riders are on such good cash that there is no need to go to Europe or even the Olympics.
Nakano was the exception. Driven by 10 world titles.
Andy
That money argument has been put out for ages.
It didn't stop Michael Jordon, Roger Federer, Hidetoshi Nakata and Daisuke Honda, all global superstars worth multiple times more, managing to turn out and represent their countries. Naomi Osaka the richest sportswoman in the world will represent her country as well at the next Olympics.
Odd that so many pro Japanese athletes from just one sport would not want to represent their nation.
It didn't stop Michael Jordon, Roger Federer, Hidetoshi Nakata and Daisuke Honda, all global superstars worth multiple times more, managing to turn out and represent their countries. Naomi Osaka the richest sportswoman in the world will represent her country as well at the next Olympics.
Odd that so many pro Japanese athletes from just one sport would not want to represent their nation.
I don't know whether this is a convincing explanation. Some pro riders do make very good money, and arguably the stage races like the TdF or the Giro have the biggest prestige in the world of road cycling. Plus, I do know former pros or people who hope to become a pro and have spent time in Europe. (One of the locals, a young guy in his early 20s who studies engineering came back from training camps in France last year.)For others, the Keirin riders are on such good cash that there is no need to go to Europe or even the Olympics.
That's an excellent point. The average Japanese physique is much closer to that of your archetypal cyclist — light and thin. I'm not heavy (currently 73 kg) by European standards, but I know quite a few guys who put out the same power or more than I do (and for longer), but weigh 10, 13 kg less.I don't think the cyclists have a problem representing Japan. It's more a matter of why there is not a world-class cyclist from Japan despite the cycling culture, physical attributes for the sport at professional level and opportunities.
I've got very little inside knowledge about this, but seening the big number of very talented local (meaning German) cyclists at amature level (several pro riders (e.g. Roger Kluge basically living around the corner) are training with many of the local amature riders on a regular basis - and Berlin is definitly not a cycling hot spot) and the little number of pro cyclists who actually making a good living, I think those spots on pro teams are easily filled.I know very little about this so hesitate to venture into the discussion, but was wondering if maybe the folks outside Japan are overlooking a huge pool of talent (Japanese riders) when they search for new team members. A bit of a blinkered mindset? I believe that the same thing happened in baseball until relatively recently. Now the US siphons off Japan's top baseball talents regularly. I wonder what would happen to the racing scene in Japan if a rider was picked up by a pro team in Europe or America and made a name for himself in a major race.
Given the size of the population, I'd say there should be more Japanese pros than there are. I've met plenty of Japanese who took unusual life paths motivated by pursuing a passion. In Fukuoka I have met a barista who worked in an unassuming (but really quite nice) restaurant, who spent two years living in Italy just because he wanted to learn how to make Italian-style coffee. You are right that there is more pressure to conform, but Japan has a big enough population to bring forth enough talent with a will to go against the grain.Also it takes a lot of sacrifies to live a pro cyclist's life with only little finacial outcome for many. In a country like Japan with a still high employment rate and solid average income while yet showing a pretty inflexible/conservative structure of typical career paths (high school - collage - work) with hardly room (willingness? desire?) for gaps or side steps it's probably less attractive taking the risk (incl. all that effort and investment
up front) in trying to become a pro cyclist with a high chance to fail.
Perhaps this is a contributing factor, but I don't think it explains the relative dearth of talent. Despite the popularity of cycling in Germany, I wouldn't call cycling a mass market either. And even for niche sports, you can still have professional teams. My dad was involved in women's basketball and women's ice hockey, the latter at the very highest national level. Back then one of his "innovations" was to pull in enough sponsorship money to pay hire a few players from abroad, which took several years. (Sponsorships for women sports is usually at least one order of magnitude lower than for men.) Despite that, they had a league and professional training.Another reason might be that Japan just isn't that attractive of a market for the teams with the little attention cycling is getting in the general society.
All together it's probably similar to why there are hardly any German pro baseball players.
There is, it's just a niche sport. (My dad actually managed a basket ball club after the reunification that had a women's and a men's team.) But I think your greater point still stands.Simply there's probably not enough money that could be made with women's basketball in Germany.
Good point. When I was a child, Germany had quite a few excellent tennis players (Steffi Graf, Boris Becker, Michael Stich) and consequently, there was much more interest in tennis. Nowadays, I think less so. If anything, my impression is that it has become even more of a rich person's sport.I guess Ichiro (or before that even Nomo as a ground breaker) kicked in because baseball already was very popular by the general public (not only among those who are actually playing it) in Japan by then.
I can totally see myself in that. I was never someone who liked watching sports. Even though I loved cycling, watching the Tour de France held no appeal to me and was completely boring. Now I do watch some races, but usually more for the analysis part in the vain hope that my (very humble) racing may benefit from it somehow To be honest, even though I have been cycling for almost my entire life, I was completely ignorant about how professional road racing works, that it is a team sport. (I know, duh!)One thing I noticed for my aging self, the more I actually do/play a certain sport the less I'm interested in the pro level of it. It seems the young dreams of turning pro are slowly fading.
And the more I know about (or the less I'm able to ignore) the background of pro sport the more I care about the actual (grass)roots the fun of sport.
Justin Williams from Team Legion explained this on a recent podcast: the reality of a sponsored athlete these days is quite different than a few years ago. "Worse" athletes with a great (social and otherwise) media presence can make as much as the best of them.Btw, quite some of my students can name more pro (computer) gamers than soccer players. And of those who actually are able to name soccer players know more about their cars or instagram posts than about their skills on the pitch. Things are changing.