Thank You, Daisuke!

This week Daisuke Takahashi announced his retirement from competitive figure skating, and it got me thinking about all the incredible performances he gave over the past ten years. He had a way of skating to the music and connecting to the audience unlike any other in his generation. I was so blessed to have seen him skate live a number of times during his career. I'll never forget the first time I saw him live - Skate America in 2007. We were all screaming like 16-year old fangirls during his hip-hop Swan Lake short program:

Another short program of his I loved was his Latin one. When I saw him perform it at Skate America in 2010 his jumps were a little sketchy, but his footwork and connection with the crowd were off the charts as usual:

I loathed the music "Blues For Klook," but when Daisuke skated to it for his long program in 2011-2012, I was in love with it. The dude just oozed across the ice in this program, and my favorite performance was the one he gave us at the Grand Prix Final in Quebec City:

My favorite of all his performances, though, was the exhibition he did at the 2012 Four Continents Championships. I was so lucky to be in the front row at that event, and I was moved to tears by the simple, quiet elegance of his performance to "The Crisis" by Ennio Morricone. I could feel the emotion he put into every step:

I'm so sad that we won't be seeing Daisuke on the competitive circuit anymore, but I hope we'll still see him skating for years to come because he is a true artist. He's given me so many wonderful memories and one rather amusing one - at the 2011 GPF in Quebec, my luggage got mixed up with the luggage of Daisuke's entourage at the airport, and my suitcase ended up flying to Tokyo! It wasn't too funny at the time, but since the suitcase was eventually returned to me a week later, I can laugh about it now :)

Thank you for being such a wonderful skater and sportsman, Daisuke!!