sooner than you ever thought it would

Before I read her book, I had a similar kind of impression as you did (and it’s always possible she has other things going on). I’m not sure if she’s talked about this elsewhere; I don’t remember seeing anything, and I skimmed through some articles about her and only found one throwaway mention. There an interview a few years back where she talks about learning to improve her eating habits and nutrition while rehabbing her hip fracture but says she previously skipped meals due to being busy.

Anyway, this part is from near the end of the book, in a section about her thoughts on her future and her interest in sports medicine.

怪我をきっかけに、別の側面からも「フィギュアスケーターの心身を守ることに少しでもかかわれたら」と考えるようになりました。

As a result of my injury, I began to also think from another perspective how I might be able to have even some small influence on protecting figure skaters mentally and physically.

私自身の経験を振り返ると、急激に身長が伸びた時期はなく、体型変化によって不調に陥ったことはありません。 それでも、体重のコントロールには相当に気を使っていました。自分で「これくらいが適正だろう」と考えている体重をオーバーし、身体が重いと感じてしまうのが嫌だったからです。 たとえば、朝に体重を測ってみたときに理想よりも重ければ、練習がある日でも食事は抑えていましたし、夕食で多めに食べることになりそうな予定がある日は、朝食と昼食を大幅に減らしたりもしていました。

Looking back on my own experience, there wasn’t a time when I had a sudden growth spurt or fell into a slump because of my figure changing. Even so, I put a considerable amount of care into controlling my weight. That was because I didn’t like how my body felt heavy if I went over the weight that I thought of as ‘this much seems about right’. For instance, if when I weighed myself in the morning, I was heavier than ideal, I would hold back on meals, even on days I was training, and I would also do things like drastically reduce both my breakfast and lunch when I had plans and it seemed like I would eat a lot for dinner.

しかし怪我をしてみてわかったのは、自分で適正だと考えていた体重では少なかったということです。 実際に維持すべき体重よりも少ない基準で調整していたうえ、毎日のトレーニングの負荷に対して体重も少なかったことが、股関節の疲労骨折という怪我につながることになりました。

However, what I learned from my injury was that the weight I thought of as correct was too low. It turned out that my hip fracture was connected to the fact that on top of keeping myself to a standard that was below the weight I should actually maintain, my weight was too low for the training load I had every day.

食事や体調管理について、アスリートとして指導を受ける機会はありました。しかし知識として理解していても頭の中に「身体が重い＝ジャンプが跳べない」というイメージが染みついてしまっていて、食事をしっかり摂ることができていませんでした。

As an athlete, I had opportunities to receive guidance on meals and managing my health. However, even if I understood it intellectually, in my head was the deeply ingrained image of ‘body is heavy = can’t do jumps’, and I wasn’t able to have proper meals.

今では、健康を維持するためにしっかり食事を摂るべきであること、ある程度の重さがあってもジャンプは跳べるということを理解しています。

Now I understand that I must have proper meals to maintain my health and that I can jump even with some amount of heaviness.

また、フィギュアスケーターにとって体重のコントロールは必要ですが、心身の健康を保つため、成長期には一定程度まで体重を増やすことも大切だと考えています。

Moreover, I’m thinking that while it’s necessary for figure skaters to control their weight, it’s also important for them to put on a certain amount of weight during periods of growth to sustain their mental and physical health.

将来的に、そういった医学的な見地からのサポートに少しでもかかわれればと考えています。