OLYMPICS/ Miura and Kihara: A twist of fate forges Olympic gold

"I used to work at the front desk here," he said. Miura replied, "I've heard that story so many times."

Kihara’s duties included handing out rental skates, monitoring the ice and working the night shift at the lodging facility. When young children came to the rink, he would kneel down, making his 175-centimeter-tall frame smaller, to speak with them at eye level. He wasn't given special treatment just because he was a two-time Olympian. His hourly wage was the same as a university student's. But the humbling experience had an upside. The younger skaters treated him as they always had, without ceremony. "He was able to talk with them without any pretense," Iioka recalled. “During that troubled time, he wasn't alone."