Speed Skater Miho Takagi Heads Japan Squad for Milan Cortina Winter Games

The Yomiuri Shimbun

19:03 JST, December 29, 2025

NAGANO — Miho Takagi will look to add to her bulging Olympic medal collection as she heads the 14 speed skaters named to the Japan team to next year’s Milan Cortina Winter Games.

Takagi, who won a Japan record four medals at the previous 2022 Beijing Olympics, was selected to compete in the women’s 1,000, 1,500 and team pursuit on the squad announced Sunday following the conclusion of the All-Japan Championships in Nagano.

The Japan Skating Federation has set a goal of five medals, including multiple golds.

Takagi was also named as an alternate in the 500, but she holds the right to take priority, meaning she could compete in four events in the competition scheduled for Feb. 7-21.

“I will make each day important and give everything I have to achieve my goals,” Takagi said in a press conference.

The 31-year-old Takagi, the defending Olympic champion in the 1,000 and world record-holder in the 1,500, will be competing in her fourth Olympics. She took home a total of seven medals, including two golds, from the previous two.

Nine of the 14 selected — seven men and seven women — will be headed to their first Olympics. The cream of that crop is 22-year-old Yukino Yoshida, who has two World Cup victories in the 500 this season.

“I am grateful for all of the people who have supported me up to this point,” Yoshida said. “I will do my best to repay them [with a victory].”

Two men made their second Olympic team: Wataru Morishige, the Beijing bronze medalist in the 500, and Tatsuya Shinhama, who overcame an auto accident to earn a ticket to Milan.

“I will be totally prepared so I can put in my best race and take home a medal,” Morishige said.