Yuka Orihara/Juho Pirinen: “Our programs are easy to understand”

Finnish ice dancers Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen are coming off the most successful event of their career at the European Championships in Tallinn, where they delivered outstanding performances. They achieved personal bests in both segments, earning a combined total of 193.94 points and securing an impressive 7th place.

We sat down with this dynamic and entertaining duo to learn more about their journey, their inspirations, and their goals for the future.

Eine gekürzte deutsche Version dieses Interviews ist in der Printausgabe 3/25 der Pirouette erschienen sowie hier auf Steady (unegkürzte Fassung).

Congratulations on very successful Europeans. What do you think made these great results possible?

Yuka: The preparation was good from the moment we arrived. Practice went well, so I think what we did here was just a natural continuation of our training, nothing new or surprising. It wasn’t magic.

Juho: Since summer, we’ve been building up our stamina and conditioning week by week, and that’s what led to this result. It’s not like we did something extraordinary a week ago or had some last-minute breakthrough. It’s been steady, step-by-step progress. But yes, I’d say this was our best competition of the season, and probably of our career so far.