Olympics & Paralympics

Japan’s Star Miho Takagi Skates to Spot at 4th Olympics with Victory in 1,500 at Hamar World Cup

Kazunori Hirachi / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Miho Takagi competes in the women’s 1,500 meters at a World Cup speed skating meet in Hamar, Norway, on Friday.

By Kazunori Hirachi / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

14:32 JST, December 13, 2025

HAMAR, Norway — Japanese speed skating star Miho Takagi secured a ticket to her fourth Winter Olympics by winning the women’s 1,500 meters at the season’s fourth World Cup meet on Friday in Hamar, Norway.

Takagi clocked 1 minute 54.95 seconds to edge Kazakhstan’s Nadezhda Morozova by .03 seconds for her first individual World Cup victory of the season and 37th of her career.

The victory also fulfilled the Japan Skate Federation’s criteria for selection for next year’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, where she will attempt to improve on her silver medal in the 1,500 from the 2022 Beijing Olympics and defend her crown in the 1,000.

Takagi said the day before the race that she was going to go all out to win it, and that’s what she did, darting out to an early lead against American Brittany Bowe that she gradually extended to just top Morozova’s time.

Still, Takagi remains concerned about her problem with gaining speed in the later stages, particularly with the strong Netherlands team skipping the meet to prepare for their domestic Olympic trials.

“My time can be overcome by competitors who are strong in the second half of the race,” said Takagi, who was to return to the ice on Saturday for a 1,000-meter race.