Midori Ito
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Figure skating | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Silver | 1992 Albertville | Ladies' Singles | |
Midori Ito (伊藤 みどり Itō Midori?, born August 13, 1969) is a former Japanese figure skater. She was the first Asian world champion in the sport. She is a graduate of Tokai Women's University near her hometown, Nagoya.
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[edit] Summary
Born in Nagoya, Ito started skating at age 5. She won her first national championship in 1985, having already participated in the World Championships one year earlier. She placed 5th at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Later that same year, she perfected the triple Axel which she had been working on since her early teens and she became the first woman to land a triple axel in competition, when competing at a regional competition in the Aichi prefecture. She would repeat this feat at both the 1988 NHK international later that fall, and then the World Championships in 1989. Her performance earned her the gold medal, the first in the sport for an Asian competitor, and five perfect marks of 6.0 for technical merit.
She did not retain her title in the following two years (second in 1990, fourth in 1991) primarily due to unexpected and uncharacteristic errors she made; still, she was one of the favourites for the Olympic title at the 1992 Winter Olympics. In fact, in the pre-Olympic event in Albertville in the fall of 1991, she convincingly won over her chief rival, Kristi Yamaguchi, by completing a triple-axel and six other triples in her free skate.
After a troubled Olympic short program and problems landing a triple-axel during the week, Ito was in fourth place and needed a solid long program in order to win a medal. Her long program began with a failed triple-axel: in order to win a spot on the podium, Ito added another triple-axel at the end of the program and landed it successfully, becoming the first woman to land one in the Olympics. Japanese-American Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold in Albertville, with Ito taking the silver. Ito apologized to her country for not winning the gold. She turned professional afterwards, bringing the triple Axel for the first time to the professional ranks, and performed with ice shows in Japan. Ito briefly returned to competitive skating in the 1995-1996 season, but without her former success.
During the peak of her career, Ito was an immensely powerful skater, performing much the same jump content as the top male skaters of the time. In addition to being the first female skater to perform the triple axel jump, some years earlier she was also the first to perform a triple/triple jump combination. Ito's energetic skating style did not always find favor with the judges. Later in her career, in trying to adopt a softer and more stereotypically "feminine" style, Ito seemed to lose much of the natural joy that had characterized her earlier skating. Ito also struggled with compulsory figures before they were eliminated in competition after the 1990 season, and in coping with the attention of the Japanese press following her World Championship win.
During the opening ceremonies of the 1998 Winter Olympics, Ito had the honour of lighting the Olympic Flame in the stadium.
[edit] Competitive highlights
| Event/Season | 1979-80 | 1980-81 | 1981-82 | 1982-83 | 1983-84 | 1984-85 | 1985-86 | 1986-87 | 1987-88 | 1988-89 | 1989-90 | 1990-91 | 1991-92 | 1995-96 |
| Junior Japanese Championships | 1st | - | - | 1st | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Junior World Championships | - | 8th | 6th | - | 3rd | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Japanese Championships | 3rd | - | - | - | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| World Championships | - | - | - | - | 7th | - | 11th | 8th | 6th | 1st | 2nd | 4th | - | 7th |
| Winter Olympics | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5th | - | - | - | 2nd | - |
| Skate America | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2nd | - | 2nd | - | - |
| Skate Canada Int. | - | - | - | - | - | 1st | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Trophée Lalique | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1st | - |
| NHK Trophy | - | - | - | - | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | - |
[edit] Records and Achievements
[edit] Amateur
- World Champion (1989).
- First woman to land a triple-triple jump combination（1981).
- First woman to land a double-triple jump combination (in the short program）（1984).
- First woman to land five major jumps in competition（1984).
- First woman to land a triple-axel in competition（1988).
- First woman to land six major jumps in competition（1989).
- First woman to land a triple-axel in the Olympics（1992).
[edit] Awards
- Inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame (2003).
[edit] External link
[edit] Navigation
| Preceded by Muhammad Ali Atlanta 1996 |
Final Olympic Torchbearer Midori Ito Nagano 1998 |
Succeeded by Cathy Freeman Sydney 2000 |
