Fumie Suguri - Career

Career

Suguri began skating at age 5 in Alaska. When she returned to Japan, she began formal training.

In 1994, while visiting the practice rink for the 1994 World Championships, Suguri was taught the triple Lutz jump by Michelle Kwan, who was competing in the event.

Suguri won her first Japanese national title in 1997, and won it four more times in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006.

In 2001, Suguri won the 2001 Four Continents. She is the first Japanese woman to win that competition. She would go on to win Four Continents three more times, and she holds the most Four Continents titles of any Japanese skater and any female skater.

In 2002, she competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics and placed 5th. A month later, she won the bronze medal at the 2002 World Championships behind Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya. Her bronze medal at Worlds was the first medal for a Japanese woman at the World Championships since Yuka Sato won the title in 1994.

In 2003, Suguri won the bronze medal again at the World Championships, this time behind Kwan and Elena Sokolova.

In 2003, she won the NHK Trophy, then placed 3rd at Cup of China, thus qualifying for the Grand Prix Final. Suguri won the Final, defeating Sasha Cohen. Suguri is the first Japanese woman to win that competition.

In 2006, she won the Japanese Figure Skating Championships against Mao Asada and Shizuka Arakawa. She competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where she placed 4th. She won the silver medal at the 2006 World Championships behind Kimmie Meissner. She became the first Japanese woman to earn three World Championship medals.

In 2007, Suguri finished fourth at the Japanese championships behind younger competitors Mao Asada, Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano, and missed a spot in the World Championships which were held, that year, in her home country. She competed at the Four Continents Championships, where she withdrew due to injury after falling on two jumps in her short program.

In 2008 at the Japanese National Championship, Suguri placed third after her short program, but she stumbled in the free program, finishing fourth overall, and, again, she missed a spot on the World Championship team.

During the 2008–2009 season, Suguri chose to train with coach Nikolai Morozov in Hackensack, New Jersey. There, she was able to improve her jumping ability. Her first competition of the season was Skate Canada where she placed second behind Joannie Rochette. Her next competition was Cup of Russia, where she led after the short program, then placed third in the free skate, and finished third, overall. At the 2008/2009 Japanese Championships she was 5th after the short program due to a fall while executing a triple flip jump. In her long program she landed five triples and did not make any mistakes. For that program she scored 121.27 points, winning the long program and placing second overall, behind Mao Asada. She, then, placed 6th at 2009 Four Continents and 8th at 2009 World Championships.

In March 2011, Suguri stated that she would continue competing the next season, and possibly until 2014.

She was unsuccessful in her effort to make 2011–2012 Japanese Nationals coming in 12th in qualifying competition. She was dealing with an ankle injury.