BIG IN JAPAN
Midori Ito
 With her great charm, boundless energy, fearless daring and athletic skill,
Midori Ito epitomized women' ice-skating in the mid 1990s.
The first woman to land a triple axel in amateur competition - a difficult maneuver, which
became her signature in professional skating - Ito was a trailblazer for skaters both in
Japan and Asia alike. Ito was the first Asian skater to win a world championship-level
competition, a success that will continue to impact on and inspire ice-skaters in the
region for generations to come.
Ito was born on August 13, 1969 in Nagoya. She began skating at the age of four, taking up
competitive skating two years later at the tender age of six. She started on her
successful journey to ice-skating success at eleven, when she won the All Japan Junior
Championship. At twelve, her family life took a unfortunate turn when her parents
divorced, and Ito, rather surprisingly, moved in with her coach, Machiko Yamada.
Despite this personal setback, her successes began to snowball. She won the All Japan
Juniors seven consecutive times after that first victory at age eleven. Despite breaking
an ankle in 1985-her second ankle injury-she went on to win the NHK Championships that
year.
Her trademark triple axel was first performed at the 1988 Aichi Prefectural Championships
in November, where she won the gold medal. At the 1989 World Championships in Paris a few
months later, she became the first women's figure skater to land a triple axel in
international competition. Despite placing sixth in the compulsory figures in that
competition, Ito still brought the gold medal home to Japan.
In the 1992 Olympics, Ito won the silver medal in the figure skating competition,
prompting her to make the leap from amateur to professional skating.
The professional ranks were very good to Ito, who won the World Professional Championship
in 1993, where she was the first-and so far the only-professional women's figure skater to
land a triple axel. Despite the successes in the professional ranks, Ito returned to the
amateur field in 1995, retiring a year later due to low blood protein levels.
Ito's heroics on the ice have yet to be forgotten. It was fitting that Ito, as one of
Japan's most successful athletes, was given the honor of both being the first torch-bearer
when the Olympic torch arrived in Japan for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, and was
the last bearer of the torch, lighting the Olympic Cauldron to start the games. Ito also
served as a commentator for Japanese television during the figure skating competitions.
Although she hung up her competitive skates in 1998 in order to perform in various Prince
Ice Shows around Japan and Asia, Ito has hinted recently that she could be returning to
the rigors of competitive figure skating. Should these hints prove to be prophetic, it
would be interesting to see what additional innovations Ito brings to the ice in this
encore.
Larry Cafeiro
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