Mao Asada

Mao Asada (浅田 真央) is a Japanese former competitive figure skater.

She won the Japanese novice national championships in the 2002–03 season, earning an invitation to compete at the junior championships, where she placed 4th.

She also competed in the senior national championships and placed 7th.

In the 2003–04 season, Asada repeated the same placements at the novice and junior level and placed 8th at the senior nationals.

She won the Mladost Trophy, her first international event.

A former prodigy, Asada is the fifth woman and the first junior girl to land the triple Axel, accomplishing this at the 2004–05 Junior Grand Prix Final.

She won her first Grand Prix Final at the age of 15.

In the 2004–05 season, Asada was age-eligible for junior international competitions.

She competed in the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, winning both of her events.

At the Junior Grand Prix Final, she won gold with an overall score 35.08 points ahead of the silver medalist, Yuna Kim.

She became the first junior ladies skater to land a triple axel in competition, and the fifth woman overall.

Asada is also the 2005 World Junior champion, the 2004–05 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and a six-time Japanese national champion (2006–2009, 2011–2012).

Asada won the Japanese Junior National championships, ahead of her sister who took the silver medal, and qualified for the 2005 Junior Worlds.

Asada's win earned her an invitation to the senior national championships, where she won the silver medal.

Asada was not age-eligible for the 2005 World Championships.

Considered by many to be the best figure skater in the world at that time, Asada was 87 days too young to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

She is the first figure skater in a singles discipline from Asia to win multiple world championships.

She won two gold medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series and finished 6th at the 2006 Four Continents Championships.

Now she works as a TV presenter and skates in ice shows.

Asada owned a miniature poodle named Aero, who is named after the chocolate confection made by Nestlé.

She has included Aero in exhibition programs.

In 2008, Asada acquired two puppies, named Tiara and Komachi.

Mao Asada studied classical ballet from the age of three to nine, but followed her sister in switching to figure skating.

She received her high school diploma from Chukyo High School on 15 March 2009.

She is the 2010 Olympic silver medalist, a three-time World champion (2008, 2010, 2014), a three-time Four Continents champion (2008, 2010, 2013), and a four-time Grand Prix Final champion (2005–06, 2008–09, 2012–13, 2013–14).

She is the first female figure skater who has landed three triple Axel jumps in one competition, which she achieved at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

At the 2013 Skate America, she became the first singles skater, male or female, to win all seven of the current events on the Grand Prix series.

She holds 15 Grand Prix series titles, the second-highest total among ladies and the sixth-highest total among skaters of all four disciplines.

Due to her collection of ISU titles surpassing any other ladies singles figure skater during her time, she has established herself as one of the most highly recognized athletes in Japan and is widely considered to be among the best ladies figure skaters of all time.

She is credited with being one of the pioneering ladies skaters that truly combined athleticism and artistry.

Notable athletes including Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno regard Asada as their role model.

Mao Asada was born in Meitō-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.

She was named after the Japanese actress Mao Daichi.

She attended Nagoya International School until the middle of 1st grade.

After transferring, she graduated from Takabari Elementary School and Takabaridai Junior High.

She is the former world record holder for the ladies' short program score, which she set at the 2014 World Championships and held until it was broken by Evgenia Medvedeva in 2016.

After that, she enrolled in Chukyo University and graduated in March 2015.

While growing up, she idolized Midori Ito.

She learned to skate after school almost every day.

Her sister Mai Asada (two years older) is also a figure skater.