Mao Asada

is a Japanese former competitive figure skater. 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.

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).

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.

Career

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

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. At the Junior World Championships, she won with a 20.31 lead over the silver medalist Kim Yuna. In the short program at the Cup of China, she landed her opening triple Axel and three additional triple jumps (one deemed under-rotated), one of the first women to try the maximum number of triple jumps in the short program. The next day during the free skate, she landed her opening triple Axel but had small errors on her remaining jumps. After winning the short program and placing third in the free skate, she won her first international competition upon returning. This victory extended her grand prix winning streak to eight, the longest in ladies single skating history. She went on to the 2015 NHK Trophy and won the bronze after several problems with her jumping passes. Asada's Grand Prix results qualified her to compete at the 2015–16 Grand Prix Final, where she finished sixth.

Asada went on to win bronze at the 2015–16 Japan Championships. She was selected to compete at both the 2016 Four Continents Championships and 2016 World Championships, though she opted to skip the former in order to focus on the latter. First woman to land the triple Axel in multiple Olympics. Second woman to land a triple Axel at the Winter Olympics. First woman to land two triple Axel jumps in the same program 2008-2009 Grand Prix Final. Currently holds the record for most triple Axels landed in international competition by a woman.

Other: First figure skater in a singles discipline from Asia to win multiple world championships. First Japanese figure skater in any discipline to win multiple world championships. First singles figure skater to win all seven of the current events on the Grand Prix circuit.

Mao Asada Thanks Tour "Mao Thanks Tour" (浅田真央サンクスツアー) was founded by Mao Asada in 2018, soon after her retirement, to express gratitude to the fans for their love and support. She became the producer, the director and the main star of the project. In her column for Number, Asada named it "the second stage of my skating life".