Fumie Suguri

Infobox East Asian
title =
japanesename =
kanji = 村主 章枝
kana = すぐり ふみえ
kanahist =
hiragana =
katakana =
shinjitai =
kyujitai =
romaji = Suguri Fumie
hepburn =
japanesetext = japanese name|Suguriinfobox Figure skater
title= Fumie Suguri


caption= Suguri in 2003.
country= JPN
dateofbirth= birth date and age|1980|12|31
residence= Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
height= convert|157|cm|ftin|abbr=on
coach= Nikolai Morozov
formercoach= Alexander Zhulin,
Igor Pashkevitch,
Nobuo Sato,
Nobuko Fukui,
Shinji Someya,
Oleg Vasiliev
choreographer= Nikolai Morozov,
Alexander Zhulin
skating club= avex
retired=
combined total= 182.08
combined date= 2004 GPF
SP score= 62.12
SP date= 2006 Worlds
FS score= 120.06
FS date= 2004 GPF

nihongo-expanded|Fumie Suguri|村主 章枝|Suguri Fumie|born December 31, 1980 in Chiba [ [http://www.sanspo.com/torino2006/figureskating/player/suguri_fumie.html SANSPO.COM > トリノ五輪特集 > フィギュアスケート > 選手名鑑 > 村主章枝（すぐり・ふみえ） ] ] , Japan is a Japanese figure skater. She is a five-time Japanese National Champion, three-time World Championship medalist, and the 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 was a child. As a result, 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 training.

In 1994, Suguri visited the practice rink for the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships and learned the triple Lutz jump personally from Michelle Kwan, who was competing in those Worlds.

Suguri won her first Japanese national title in 1997, and won it three more times between 2001-2003 and again in 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 that competition three more times in her career and she holds the most Four Continents titles of any Japanese 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, placed 3rd at Cup of China and qualified for the 2004 Grand Prix Final. Suguri won the Final over Sasha Cohen. Suguri is the first Japanese woman to win that competition.

In 2006, she won the Japanese Figure Skating Championships ahead of 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 win three World medals.

In 2007, Suguri finished fourth at the Japanese championships behind younger competitors Yukari Nakano, Miki Ando and Mao Asada missing a spot to the World Championships 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, although Suguri placed third after her short program, she stumbled in the free program, finishing fourth overall, again missing a spot on the World Championship team.

Coaching changes

She trained under Nobuo Sato, a ten-time Japanese national champion, for 19 years, until she moved her training ground to New Jersey to work with Nikolai Morozov. She was previously coached by Oleg Vasiliev for a brief time 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.

Competitive highlights summary

Post-2000

References

External links

* [http://www.fumiesuguri.com Official site]
*isu name | id=00000011 | name=Fumie Suguri
* [http://www.mceskating.com/newsfumie.shtml Michael Collins Enterprises]