Tribute to a deceased gymnast

Mr Masyouki passed away from brain tumor July 2009. I never met Mr Masyuki personally but glimpse of his (or his team’s) story came up every now and then. I never managed to piece together the entire story using just Google translate. Finally, with the translation help from Kana Parr-Whalley and Craig Parr-Whalley of Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Club in Auckland, New Zealand, I can now share with the full story with the English speaking world.

• An abbreviated translated biography of Mr Masayuki and team by Arakawa Sakae (荒川 栄) translated by Kana Parr-Whalley – Mr Masayuki’s life story reached and touched so many more beyond his competition career. Here is a full Japanese version from Amazon Japan. Please click and read at least the abbreviated translated story, you will get a much better appreciation of the story behind the group routine his team dedicated to him.
• Mr Masyuki passed away on July 23rd, 2009 from brain tumor.
  At Masayuki’s funeral, University of Aomori MRG club were discussing “Shall we use his music to do our performance?” They were trying to modify Masayuki’s individual gym routine music to make up University of Aomori’s group routine to show respect to him. With only 2 months to Nationals, to undergo such a change where both the choreography, expression and synchronization and music structure just 2 months prior to the nationals seems impossible but they went ahead anyways. The change wasn’t easy, and there were always some little glitches even up to the warm up before the performance. When the team went onto the floor, as oppose to the normal loud cheering, the entire venue was silent. The following video was recorded during the actual performance:

• Masayuki Ohtsubo (大坪政幸)’s individual routine – Mr Masayuki never reached his full potential during competitions because of stage fright. However, his cheerful and easy going attitude and his expressiveness have always been a positive influence to those around him.
• “Blue” performance in Japan (Jan 26th 2013)
  – The first step towards the dream and vision of having MRG on world stage. If you read the full article, you will see how his coach and him wanted MRG to be on world stage as a stage performance beyond just a sport and it is happening. If you happen to be in Japan during that time period, it is a show that you probably don’t want to miss. Details on the Facebook event link.

Exercise
My thoughts (please share yours too):

• Be it gymnastics, martial arts or anything, your passion and drive can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Believe in your dreams and make steps towards it. Your passion and drive will make a difference, even if it is not accomplished as part of your own personal journey.
• Men’s rhythmic gymnastics and stories like this could never have reached us without the help of internet and people like Kana and many others. I just want to express my deep appreciation.