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| Birth Name(s) : Shizuka Arakawa |
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Full Shizuka Arakawa Biography
Shizuka Arakawa ('川 静香, Arakawa Shizuka?, born December 29, 1981) is a Japanese figure skater. She is the 2006 Olympic Champion and the 2004 World Champion. She is the first Japanese figure skater to win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating. She currently works as a skating sportscaster on Japanese television.
Arakawa was born in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region. She is the only child of Koichi and Sachi Arakawa. She was named Shizuka after Shizuka Gozen.
Arakawa graduated with a Bachelor's degree in social sciences from Waseda University in Tokyo in 2004, while still competing in competition. She won her world championship title days after completing her graduation examinations at Waseda.
She lived and traind for a time at the International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury in the United States after the closure of the Konami Sports Ice Rink in Sendai, where she began her career.
Arakawa cites gourmet cooking as one of her hobbies. She collects beanie babies, has a pet shih tzu (named Charo) and hamster (named Juntoki).
When Arakawa was 5 years old, she became interested in skating and entered the Chibikko Skate School.
She started ballet lessons at 7. At 7, Arakawa had begun training with former Olympian Hiroshi Nagakubo, a pair skater who competed in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. She was landing triple-jump salchows at age 8.
In 1994, she began participating in Japanese national skating competitions. She was named the 1994, 1995, 1996 All Japan Junior Figure athlete. Arakawa progressed through the Japanese ranks quickly and was the first skater in Japan to win three consecutive junior national titles.
Arakawa made her Olympic debut when she represented Japan in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano at age 16. The Emperor and Empress of Japan attended the ladies' free skate event. She placed 13th at the Nagano Olympics. At this time, she was ranked number 2 in Japan.
In 2002, Arakawa finished second at Japan's national championships and as a result was not named to the Japanese 2002 Winter Olympics team.
During the 2002-2003 skating season, Arakawa won the Asian Winter Games and the Winter Universiade. She took her second consecutive silver medal at the Four Continents Championships. She finished fourth at the ISU Grand Prix Final and she took the bronze at the NHK Trophy. She placed fifth at the Cup of Russia. She also finished third at the Japanese Nationals, marking her fifth medal from this meet to go with two golds and two silvers from previous seasons.
In 2004, she won the 2004 World Championships in Dortmund, Germany, after landing seven clean triple jumps She is the third Japanese woman to win this title after Midori Ito who won in 1989 and Yuka Sato in 1994.
Arakawa had planned to retire after the 2004 World Championships, but her victory there convinced her to change her plans. She struggled with a foot injury, homesickness and motivation. She was also beginning to trail behind younger Japanese competitors like Miki Ando and Mao Asada.
Her 9th place finish at the 2005 World Championships was the motivation she needed to stay in the sport and regain top form. She felt she could not quit on such a down note. In November 2005, Arakawa called Belarus figure skater Nikolai Morozov and asked if he would consider coaching her. He agreed.
Arakawa skated to Puccini's Violin Fantasy of Turandot for her long program. One of the most highlights of the program was when she performed an Ina Bauer and then did a three jump combination. "Ina Bauer" became a household word in Japan as a result. Arakawa skated a clean free-skate program, with no falls. Although she had planned a triple-triple combination for the free skate, she did not perform it. She changed it into a triple salchow-double toe loop combination.
After winning her Olympic title, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called Arakawa in Turin, Italy to congratulate her. Koizumi said, "I cheered for you with excitement while I watched television. All the Japanese people are rejoicing. I give a perfect score to every bit of your performance.".
Arakawa continues to skate in exhibition programs and is a regular skating commentator for Japanese TV. She competed in the 2006 Ice Wars on the World team.
At 5 feet 6 inches, Arakawa is one of the tallest ladies' skaters and is known for her spins and jumping ability, particularly her difficult triple-triple combinations. In 2004, she added a Biellmann spin to her repertoire. She is known also for exceptional skating quality, seemingly effortless cross overs, and gaining speed with ease.
Arakawa is also known for her spirals. Her signature spiral is a "Y-spiral" where she releases her free leg and completes the spiral with her leg still close to her head, without the hand assist.
Her trademark move is the Ina Bauer. Arakawa's interpretation of this move putting her in a full backbend. Due to Arakawa's use of this move during her free skate at the 2006 Olympics, the term "Ina Bauer" became very popular in Japan, and Arakawa's performance of it became iconic. The term Ina Bauer is often referred to in Japan by Arakawa's name. |
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