Figure Skater Miki Ando 〜 Single mother who thought about an abortion

 

Two-time figure skating world champion Miki Ando, who gave birth to a baby girl in April, 2013. At the time,  Ando asked the media to keep their distance as she continues her preparations to return to the world stage at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Ando said over-zealous journalists had made it impossible for her to go shopping without being mobbed.

 

Speaking about the pressures of raising a daughter while competing in world-class figure skating, Ando remarked that although it was tiring dividing her time between training and motherhood, seeing her daughter’s face made her want to do her best.

 

 

 

 

Miki Ando’s Personal Information ☆

 

・Country:Japan

・Born:Dec 18 1987  (in Nagoya, Japan)

・Height: 1.62m (5 ft 4 in)

・Began skating:1995

・Retired:2013

 

 

 

 

Who is the girl’s father?

Responding to press questions about the girl’s father, Ando responded that his family valued their privacy and that she would not be making any official announcements about his identity.

After Ando announced she was a mother, media speculated the father might be a 27-year-old professional Japanese figure skater who retired from competition after the 2010-2011 season.

 

Her interviewer quoted Ando as saying off camera that she definitely wanted to get married when “various arrangements have been made with the partner.”

…Probably, girl’s father’d be an old japanese man.

 

 

 

 

She had considered an abortion, but…

 

Ando, who in 2002 became the first and only woman to land a quadruple jump in competition, said she became aware of her pregnancy  when she pulled out of the 2012-2013 Grand Prix series citing insufficient conditioning. Ando hinted she had considered an abortion.

“Skating is something indispensable that has brought me up to where I am.”  “I could not make up my mind all the way but I hated to make a decision to say goodbye (to the baby). I have chosen the baby’s life over skating. It was a decision I made naturally as a woman.”

 

Ando resumed practice a month after giving birth in April, adding muscle toning to her regime. She appeared in a domestic ice show on June 28 where she displayed her triple salchow.

To qualify for the Olympics, she needs To finish on the podium at the national championships in December. Japan has three women’s singles figure skating spots in Sochi.

 

Ahead of that she will have to qualify for the nationals through regional championships in October.

Ando, who finished 15th in the 2006 Turin Olympics and fifth in the 2010 Vancouver Games, parted company with Russian coach Nikolai Morozov after winning her second world title in Moscow in 2011.

 

 

Ando and Morozov were once romantically linked in media reports, which they did not deny, until they ended the professional relationship. Morozov told the Fuji TV network he was not the baby’s father.

 

In May, a Japanese paparazzi magazine published photos of Ando and the 27-year-old Japanese pro skater, with a caption claiming they were living together in Yokohama.

Figure skating is wildly popular in Japan with domestic competitions nationally televised. The country has produced five women’s world champions, including Mao Asada who was also the 2010 Olympic silver medalist, and one men’s champion.

 

 

 

 

I always wore a mask or glasses because of paparazzi

However, one day, someone changed my life. He told me, ‘Why do you have to hide? Why do you have to have a secret?’ ”

The demands of being a celebrity in Japan for so many years had taken a toll on the sensitive Ando. “For a long time I felt like I had no life,” she said. “Why did I have to hide? Why did I have to have a secret?”

 

“For him to be with me was probably a hard decision for him, because I have a baby and we are far away,” she commented. “I quit skating and he is still going on for the Olympics. It was probably a very hard decision for him.”

“He came to me and asked me if we could try to work it out to be together, and I was so happy because I already had feelings for him,” Ando recalled. “We announced that we were together when we were in Toronto and nobody knew about it beforehand.”

 

 

Ando feels that Fernandez’s outlook on life helped her to relax.

“I told him about Japanese culture, but he said to me, ‘You have to change yourself, otherwise you have no life.’ There is no joy to hide and have a secret. So I said, ‘OK’ because I trust him.

 

 

 

 

I didn’t want to compete…

“Now it’s more comfortable for me,” she said. “I go out just as I am. It’s less stress for me. He told me, ‘People will think you are a more normal person.’ ”

 

The Madrid native then suggested that Ando be more open with Himawari,

“He asked me, ‘Why don’t you go out with your daughter?’ I said I didn’t want the paparazzi to get her picture and put her picture in the magazine or on social media.”

 

Fernandez convinced Ando that she could simplify her life by letting her guard down.

“We posted a picture as a family,” she stated. “After that, people came to know her face, and then it was nothing new for the paparazzi.”

 

“He really changed my life.”

 
 

 

Though Ando had many highs and lows during her long skating career, the incredible season she had in 2010-11 remains one of the most impressive in Ice Time’s memory.

Coming off the Vancouver Olympics, where she finished fifth, Ando was contemplating taking the season off to recharge her batteries.

 

“I didn’t want to compete that season at all,” Ando stated. “After the Olympics, my coach Nikolai Morozov told me maybe we can have one year off to be fresh. But then he realized that the worlds were going to be in Tokyo again, and he said, ‘You’re not going to have one year off. It’s your country, so you should skate for it.’

“My mentality and my feeling were already off,” Ando said. “I fought with him so much. I couldn’t think about competing. I made three show numbers. I didn’t make any competition numbers until I felt like I was ready to compete.”