Rika Kihira

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

As a singles skater, 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).

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 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).

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

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.

Career Singles skating Early years Kihira began learning to skate in 2007.

2016–17 season: International junior debut

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).

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. She did not compete that season or the next. In September of the 2025–2026 season, she entered the Chūbu regional competition, a qualifying competition for the Japan Figure Skating Championships, but she withdrew a few days before the competition. She said that she was unable to prepare sufficiently to compete as she continued to experience pain in her right ankle when training difficult jumps. She expressed frustration over not being able to train as she wanted but said she intended to continue trying to return to competition.

Ice dance with Shingo Nishiyama 2025–26 season: Debut of Kihira/Nishiyama In September 2025, Kihira announced that she had teamed up with Shingo Nishiyama with the intention to compete in the ice dance discipline while also continuing to train as a singles skater. She also shared that she and Nishiyama would train at the Ice Academy of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, coached by Romain Haguenauer, Marie-France Dubreuil, and Patrice Lauzon.

In late December, Kihira/Nishiyama competed at the 2025–26 Japan Championships, where they finished in fourth place. Her triple Axel and triple Lutz have received GOE as high as +3.09 and +2.36, respectively. She has notably never received an edge call in her junior or senior career since both her Lutz and Flip have correct take-off edges.

In addition to executing her jumps with high GOE scores, Kihira is also known for landing challenging and difficult jumps. She is the first female skater to land eight fully rotated triples in a program. She has landed triple Axels and triple Axel-triple toe loops in international competition, being the first and now one of two ladies who has achieved the latter. She was the youngest lady to land the triple Axel in an ISU-sanctioned competition until Alysa Liu. She has also landed triple Axels in a three-part combination in domestic competition. She is training the quad toe loop and quad Salchow. She first attempted the quad Salchow in competition at the 2019–20 Grand Prix Final during her free skate, fully rotating but falling on the jump. Her second attempt in competition, at the 2020-21 Japanese National Championships, was landed cleanly with positive grades of execution.

In addition to her jumps, analysts have discussed her skating skills and presentation, including her edge work, multi-directional skating, acceleration, ice coverage, flow, upper-body carriage, and extension.

Programs Ice dance with Shingo Nishiyama Season Short program Free skating Exhibition 2026–2027 golden hour (Fujii Kaze Remix) this is what falling in love feels like Mon Dieu Song for the Little Sparrow 2025–2026 Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...) Scatman & Hatman Princess Mononoke I. The Legend Of Ashitaka II. TA TA RI GAMI V. Mononoke Hime I. The Legend Of Ashitaka

Singles skating Season Short program Free skating Exhibition 2023–2024 Japan 3rd 2nd 1st 1st 11th Japan Junior 11th 11th 1st Team events World Team Trophy 2nd T 4th P 3rd T 4th P Japan Open 2nd T 3rd P 1st T 5th P

Detailed results Ice dance with Shingo Nishiyama

Women's singles

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