Nobunari Oda

Oda did a good job. Unfortunately, his teammates’ scores were low enough that they lost to the U.S. team. Here’s some trivia supplied by Dick Button: Oda is the 17th direct descendant of Oda Nobunaga, who was a warlord in Japan during the 16th century and the inspiration for a video game. How cool is that?

Oda was penalized twice last year for doing too many triples. Now, how much of that is ignorance of the international rules (i.e., stupidity) and how much of it was his individuality? I guess I’ll have to ask him (with an interpreter) when we meet. At any rate, he made his personal best at this competition, and then broke it again the very next competition, at Skate America. Watch for this guy to continue to improve this season.