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Fumie Suguri

Suguri at the 2008 Skate Canada.
Personal information
Country represented:	Japan
Date of birth:	December 31, 1980 (1980-12-31) (age 29)
Residence:	Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
Height:	157 cm (5.2 ft)
Coach:	Igor Pashkevitch
Former coach:	Alexei Mishin Nikolai Morozov Alexander Zhulin Nobuo Sato Nobuko Fukui Shinji Someya Oleg Vasiliev
Choreographer:	Vakhtang Murvanidze
Former choreographer:	Nikolai Morozov Alexander Zhulin Lori Nichol David Wilson
Skating club:	Ak Global Agent
ISU personal best scores
Combined total:	182.08 2004 GPF
Short program:	62.12 2006 Worlds
Free skate:	120.06 2004 GPF

Fumie Suguri (村主 章枝, Suguri Fumie ^?, born December 31, 1980 in Chiba^[1], Japan) is a Japanese figure skater. She is a five-time Japanese National Champion, three-time World Championship medalist, three-time Four Continents Champion and the 2003-2004 Grand Prix Final Champion.

Biography

Personal life

Suguri was born in Chiba, Chiba, Japan. Her younger sister, Chika Suguri, is also a figure skater.

Her father was a pilot for JAL and Suguri lived in Anchorage, Alaska as a child. She is bilingual in Japanese and English.

She graduated from Waseda University.

Career

She began skating at age 5 in Alaska. When she returned to Japan, she began formal training.

In 1994, while visiting the practice rink for the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships, Suguri was taught the triple Lutz jump by Michelle Kwan, who was competing in the World Championship.

Suguri won her first Japanese national title in 1997, and won it four more times in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006.

In 2001, Suguri won the 2001 Four Continents Championships. She is the first Japanese woman to win that competition. She would go on to win Four Continents three more times, and she holds the most Four Continents titles of any Japanese skater and any female skater.

In 2002, she competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics and placed 5th. A month later, she won the bronze medal at the 2002 World Figure Skating Championships behind Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya. Her bronze medal at Worlds was the first medal for a Japanese woman at the World Championships since Yuka Sato won the title in 1994.

In 2003, Suguri won the bronze medal again at the World Championships, this time behind Kwan and Elena Sokolova.

In 2004, she won the NHK Trophy, then placed 3rd at Cup of China, thus qualifying for the 2004 Grand Prix Final. Suguri won the Final, defeating Sasha Cohen. Suguri is the first Japanese woman to win that competition.

In 2006, she won the Japanese Figure Skating Championships against Mao Asada and Shizuka Arakawa. She competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where she placed 4th. She won the silver medal at the 2006 World Figure Skating Championships behind Kimmie Meissner. She became the first Japanese woman to earn three World Championship medals.

In 2007, Suguri finished fourth at the Japanese championships behind younger competitors Mao Asada, Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano, and missed a spot in the World Championships which were held, that year, in her home country. She competed at the Four Continents Championships, where she withdrew due to injury after falling on two jumps in her short program.

In 2008 at the Japanese National Championship, Suguri placed third after her short program, but she stumbled in the free program, finishing fourth overall, and, again, she missed a spot on the World Championship team.

In season 2008/2009 Suguri chose to train with coach Nikolai Morozov in Hackensack, New Jersey. There, she was able to improve her jumping ability. Her first competition of the season was Skate Canada where she placed second behind Joannie Rochette. Her next competition was Cup of Russia where she lead after the short program, then placed third in the free skate, and finished third, overall. At the 2008/2009 Japanese Championships she was 5th after the short program due to a fall while executing a triple flip jump. In her long program she landed five triples and didn't make any mistakes. For that program she scored 121.27 points, winning the long program and placing second overall, behind Mao Asada. She, then, placed 6th at 2009 Four Continents Championships and 8th at 2009 World Championships.

Coaching changes

She trained under Nobuo Sato, a ten-time Japanese national champion, for most of 19 years. until she moved her training ground to New Jersey to work with Nikolai Morozov. She had been coached, briefly, by Oleg Vasiliev during the 2004-05 season, but he was fired by the Japanese federation after she struggled with her jumps and had poor results in her competitions.

Programs

Competitive highlights

Fumie Suguri has had a long competitive career. Her competitive highlights by season are split up into the tables below.

Post-2004

Suguri (left) with the other medalists at 2008 Skate Canada.

• WD = Withdraw

1998-2004

Pre-1998

• J = Junior level

Detailed results

• QR = Qualifying round; SP = Short program; FS = Free skating

References

External links

• Official site
• Fumie Suguri at the International Skating Union
• Michael Collins Enterprises