Goodbye? Not yet, not soon, not at all… The final season of Kaori Sakamoto

The most emotional part of this year’s Grand Prix de France in Angers?

For many skating fans – whether in the audience or at home, in front of their screens –, it was no doubt this one: Kaori Sakamoto starting the final season of her wonderful career.

And not just anywhere, but in the French city of Angers, where one could fully comprehend the world of emotions surrounding the music of her free skate: a potpourri of La vie en rose, Hymne à l’amour, Non, je ne regrette rien – a program choreographed by Marie-France Dubreuil in Montreal, and having Patricia Kaas’ unique voice as the most suited narrator of Kaori’s story.

A story that started at 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, with then 17-year-old Kaori Sakamoto skating to music from the French movie Amélie.

Remember her?

The girl in the embroidered red dress, skating to the playful, yet nostalgic music of Yann Tiersen and storming with our hearts?

That season was also the start of the collaboration with the French choreographer Benoît Richaud, another layer in Kaori’s story with French art, music, influence.

Benoît Richaud: “Kaori is special, she has something unique, and I wanted to really show that uniqueness, I wanted to show that she’s different.

…From those Olympics I think people noticed who Kaori Sakamoto was”.

Coming full circle, Kaori Sakamoto returned to Benoît Richaud for the last short program of her competitive career, one that is surely meant to make us all teary, be a collection of emotional moments throughout the season: she skates to the classic and classy Time to Say Goodbye, as performed by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli.

What happened in the meantime, from one Olympic debut to the final chapters of a brilliant competitive story, we know it by heart: Kaori Sakamoto spoiled us with her presence on and off the ice, and made us all her fans.

She now started the final season of a long and beautiful competitive career, with 9 full seasons in seniors, and her program choices this season are symbolic, the essence of Kaori’s journey into the skating world: emotions.

Not once we called her A Heart on Skates.
And no wonder fans adore her and support her with messages like: Live. Love. Laugh. Kaori.

This free skate music, for example, is not at all by chance, but the music Kaori was purposefully saving for her last season, ever since she saw Akiko Suzuki skating to it during the final season of her career, as Kaori mentioned in interviews for the Japanese media.

And no stone will be left unturned the months following, and not a dry eye in the house either: Kaori uses Non, je ne regrette rien for her exhibition program too, a program choreographed by former teammate Satoko Miyahara, with whom Kaori shared her first senior season and her first Olympics.

No doubt whatsoever: every piece in Kaori’s journey this season was carefully thought of to fall into place.

Foreword by Florentina Tone
Photos by Alberto Ponti / 2025 Grand Prix de France, Angers

To follow: Kaori Sakamoto’s presence in Angers, photo-documented with love and admiration, and a persistent air of nostalgia, of realizing just how much we’re going to miss her on competitive ice.

But we still have a season to go – so may we all have a wonderful Kaori-season, filled with joy, excitement and layers of emotions. We feel them all already.

Kaori Sakamoto chose Time to Say Goodbye as a companion in her short program this season, and as a message to us all. Goodbye? Not yet, not soon, not at all, we say in one voice.

Hymne à l’amour: Kaori wanted this particular music for her last competitive free skate – and the piece is accompanied by La vie en rose and Non, je ne regrette rien, making it an Édith Piaf Medley, with the glorious voice of Patria Kaas connecting all the little stories, details.