Rika Kihira

Rika Kihira (紀平 梨花; born 21 July 2002) is a Japanese figure skater.

Kihira was born on 21 July 2002 in Nishinomiya, Japan.

Kihira began learning to skate in 2007.

In the 2015–16 season, she competed on the advanced novice level, winning gold at the Triglav Trophy.

She was invited to skate in the gala at the 2015 NHK Trophy as the Japanese national novice champion in the same season.

She is coached by Mie Hamada and Yamato Tamura in Takatsuki, Osaka.

According to Hamada, Kihira didn't have any triple jumps when she first came to her, but she still noticed Kihira's high potential in her upper body strength (from gymnastics) and speed while running.

Hamada recalled that she was convinced from the first day she saw Kihira skate that she could "master a triple Axel."

The first thing Hamada did was teach Kihira how to control her axis while jumping in order to prepare her for triple jumps.

In doing so, she finished ahead of compatriot and reigning Japanese national champion Satoko Miyahara and 2015 World Champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, who also performed a triple Axel in her free program.

On the junior level, she is the 2016 JGP Slovenia champion, the 2016 JGP Czech Republic silver medalist, the 2017 JGP Latvia silver medalist, and the 2017 Japanese junior national champion.

Kihira is the seventh woman to have landed the triple Axel jump in an International Skating Union competition, the first ever woman to land a triple Axel-triple toe loop combination, the first woman to land eight clean triples in a free skate, the second woman to land four clean triples in the short program, and the third woman to land twelve clean triples in one competition (all the maximum allowed under the Zayak rule).

Kihira made her Junior Grand Prix (JGP) debut in the 2016–17 season.

In early September, she won the silver medal in Ostrava, Czech Republic, with a total score 0.08 less than Anastasiia Gubanova of Russia.

Later that month, she outscored World junior champion Marin Honda by 15.49 points for the gold in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Kihira landed a triple Axel jump in the free skate, becoming the seventh ladies skater in history to do so.

She also became the first female skater ever to land eight clean triples in the free skate (the maximum allowed under the Zayak rule).

She qualified to the 2016–17 JGP Final in Marseille, France, where she finished fourth.

Kihira began her season by winning a gold medal at the Asian Trophy in Hong Kong.

She was able to land a triple Axel in her free skate.

Kihira was assigned JGP events in Latvia and Italy.

In her first event at JGP Riga, Kihira placed sixth in the short program after stepping out of her triple flip and falling on her triple Lutz.

After winning the free skate, she finished second overall behind Daria Panenkova.

In her next event at JGP Egna, she won the bronze medal behind Sofia Samodurova and Alena Kostornaia after placing second in the short program and third in the free skate.

The results qualified her for her second JGP Final in Nagoya, Japan over Mako Yamashita through a tiebreaker.

At the 2017 JGP Final, she became the first-ever woman to land a triple Axel-triple jump combination in an international competition organized by the International Skating Union.

She was the only non-Russian competitor and finished fourth overall, following a popped Axel and an under-rotation on another jump.

Kihira won the gold medal at Junior Nationals.

She placed sixth in the short program but rebounded in the free skate with a triple Axel and triple Axel-triple toe loop-double toe loop.

On the senior level, Kihira won the bronze medal at Japanese Nationals after placing fifth in the short program and second in the free skate.

As she was age-ineligible to compete as a senior, she was sent to the 2018 World Junior Championships, where she placed eighth.

Making her senior debut, Kihira began the season with a gold medal at the 2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy, an ISU Challenger Series event.

Kihira placed first in the short program, despite falling on her triple Axel.

She also placed first in the long program with eight fully rotated triple jumps, including a triple Axel-triple toe loop and a solo triple Axel, and set a free skate world record of 147.37 points.

For her senior Grand Prix debut, Kihira was originally assigned only one event.

At 2018 NHK Trophy, Kihira was fifth in the short program after underrotating and falling on her triple Axel again.

She placed first in the free skate with a solo triple Axel, a triple Axel-triple toe loop, and eight triple jumps in total, winning the gold medal overall.

She is a two-time Four Continents champion (2019, 2020), the 2018 Grand Prix Final champion, a four-time Grand Prix series medalist (2018 NHK Trophy gold, 2018 Internationaux de France gold, 2019 Skate Canada silver, 2019 NHK Trophy silver), a two-time International Challenge Cup champion, and a two-time Japanese national champion (2019, 2020).

As of 25 March 2022, Kihira is the twelfth highest ranked women's singles skater in the world by the International Skating Union.

In December 2020, she announced that she had been accepted to Waseda University's School of Human Sciences and would start attending via correspondence course from spring 2021.