{"id":196531,"date":"2025-12-21T14:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T14:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/196531\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T14:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T14:30:09","slug":"sakamoto-kaori-punches-ticket-to-third-olympic-winter-games-with-sixth-national-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/196531\/","title":{"rendered":"Sakamoto Kaori punches ticket to third Olympic Winter Games with sixth national title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sakamoto Kaori<\/a> is headed to her third\u00a0Olympic Winter Games<\/a>*\u00a0after the three-time world champion won her fifth consecutive Japan Figure Skating<\/a> Championships\u00a0 in Tokyo on Sunday (21 December).<\/p>\n

Two-time Olympic medallist Sakamoto topped the free skating with a 154.93 for a 234.36 overall to secure the lone women\u2019s automatic berth at Milano Cortina 2026 in February.<\/p>\n

She will be the first female Japanese figure skater to compete at three Games.<\/p>\n

Sakamoto held off a valiant effort from 17-year-old Shimada Mao, who finished with 228.08. Chiba Mone was third on 216.24 with Nakai Ami, also 17, in fourth (213.56).<\/p>\n

After her music ended – the Edith Piaf classic Hymne \u00e0 l\u2019Amour – Sakamoto covered her face with her hands, bursting into tears to mark her final career appearance at the Japan nationals, which she now has won six times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to focus throughout the performance and I like to think I skated the way I\u2019m capable of skating,\u201d the 26-year-old Sakamoto said. \u201cReally, I\u2019m so satisfied with how I was today. It only truly hit me after the program that is it for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI let it all out in both the short and free. I gave this competition everything I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakamoto led by a mere 0.1 after the short program on Friday, and Shimada – who won silver for the second straight year – upped the pressure by surfacing on top of the free with only Sakamoto to go.<\/p>\n

Taking a deep, deep breath and getting the customary pat on the back from her coach of 21 years Nakano Sonoko – who told her \u201cthe country would turn upside down if she didn\u2019t win\u201d – Sakamoto took to the\u00a0centre of the rink.<\/p>\n

And absolutely nailed it.<\/p>\n

Her 154.93 was an unofficial season best, and it\u2019s what was needed to deny Shimada, who will be one of Sakamoto\u2019s heirs for the future, and outright grab her place on the Olympic team for a third time*.<\/p>\n

Sakamoto won bronze in the singles and silver in the team event at Beijing 2022. In less than 50 days, we\u2019ll find out if she can finally reach the Olympic summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my life, I\u2019ve never been to stick it out in anything apart from skating,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I took up the sport at three I had no idea what I would be getting into. Novice, juniors, seniors – it was all far from smooth sailing but I had an opportunity to experience a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is like a rainbow, as they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Winter Games, athletes’ participation at Milano Cortina 2026 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at the Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sakamoto Kaori is headed to her third\u00a0Olympic Winter Games*\u00a0after the three-time world champion won her fifth consecutive Japan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-196531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}