Mao Asada

Mao Asada

Mao Asada competes her long program at the 2005 World Junior Championships in Kitchener, Ontario.
Personal Info
Country:	Japan
Date of birth:	September 25 1990 (1990-09-25) (age 17)
Residence:	Los Angeles, CA
Height:	162 cm
Coach:	Rafael Arutunian
Former Coach:	Machiko Yamada, Mihoko Higuchi
Choreographer:	Lori Nichol, Tatiana Tarasova
ISU Personal Best Scores
Short + Free Total:	199.52	2006 NHK Trophy
Short Program:	69.50	2006 NHK Trophy
Free Skate:	133.13	2007 Worlds

Mao Asada (浅田 真央, Asada Mao^?, born September 25, 1990 in Nagoya, Japan) is a Japanese figure skater. She is the 2007 World silver medalist and the 2007 & 2008 Japanese national champion. Asada is currently ranked first in the world in ladies singles.^[1]

Personal life

Asada attended Nagoya International School until the end of grade one, and was home schooled from then on. Asada owns a miniature poodle named Aero, who is named after the chocolate confection made by Nestlé. Asada and Aero have been featured in chocolate commercials in Japan, and she has also used her dog in exhibition programs. Asada is named after Mao Daichi, a Japanese actress. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her mother and her sister, Mai Asada who is also an elite figure skater. Mao Asada currently trains in Lake Arrowhead, California under coach Rafael Arutunian. She is very popular in Japan and appears in many television commercials and has appeared on variety shows and has been in commercials for Oji Paper Company, Olympus Corporation, Itoham Foods, Nestlé, and Omron. In October 2007, Mao and her sister Mai Asada had to evacuate their home in Lake Arrowhead due to the California fires.^[2]

Career

Asada originally started out studying ballet, but later switched to skating in 1995 when her sister, Mai Asada also switched. When she was 12, she became the first woman to perform a triple - triple - triple combination (a triple flip, triple loop, triple toe loop combination) in competition.^[3] At the 2005 Japanese National Figure Skating Championships, Asada became the first woman to land two triple axels during a free skate program. She finished second in that competition, but was too young to qualify for one of Japan's three slots in the 2006 Winter Olympics figure skating competition due to ISU eligibility rules. During her junior career, Asada practiced quadruple loop, flip, and lutz jumps^[4], and her signature move is the cross-grab Biellmann. Asada is the first woman to perform a triple axel at the junior level in international competition. At the 2006 Junior Worlds, she became the first woman to land a triple axel in the short program at an ISU championship^[5] At the 2006 NHK Trophy, Asada broke the world record for highest combined score under the ISU Judging System.^[6] At the 2007 Worlds, she broke the world record for the highest free skate score under the ISU. ^[7] Asada's signature move is the one-hand Biellmann spin. Beginning in the 2007-2008 season, the first season edge calls were cracked down on, and Asada began to get penalized for edge errors on her lutz jump, colloquially called a "flutz".^[8] Despite these edge calls and Asada's lack of a toe-loop jump, she won both her Grand Prix events and placed second at the Grand Prix Final. Though she was in last place going into the free skate at the GPF (due to missing a jumping pass), she was able to win the free skate and obtain second overall.

Programs

Asada performs her signature move.

Competitive highlights

References

1. ^ Current ISU World Standings. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
2. ^ http://www.daily.co.jp/general/mao_topics/2007/11/03/0000730633.shtml (Japanese)
3. ^ "Iced By The Rules," San Diego Union-Tribune article about Mao Asada. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
4. ^ Interview With Mao Asada. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
5. ^ 2006 World Junior Championships Results.
6. ^ http://www.isufs.org/isujsstat/pbslto.htm
7. ^ http://www.isufs.org/isujsstat/phslfs.htm
8. ^ http://www.isufs.org/results/gpcan07/sc07_Ladies_SP_Scores.pdf

External links

• Brilliance On Ice - Official Site
• Mao Asada at the International Skating Union biography page

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