Midori Ito

Midori Ito

Ito in 1989
Personal information
Country represented	Japan
Born	August 13, 1969 (1969-08-13) (age 42)
Height	1.45 m (4 ft 9 in)
Former coach	Machiko Yamada
Retired	1992
Medal record Ladies' Figure Skating Competitor for  Japan Olympic Games Silver 1992 Albertville Ladies' singles World Championships Silver 1990 Halifax Ladies' singles Gold 1989 Paris Ladies' singles World Junior Championships Bronze 1984 Sapporo Ladies' singles

Olympic medal record
Figure skating
Silver	1992 Albertville	Ladies' Singles

Japanese name
Kanji 伊藤みどり Kana いとう みどり Rōmaji Itō Midori

Midori Ito or Midori Itō (伊藤みどり, Itō Midori^?, born August 13, 1969) is a former Japanese figure skater. She is the 1989 World Champion and the 1992 Olympic silver medalist. She is the first woman to land a triple/triple jump combination and a triple axel in competition.^[1] She is also the first woman to land seven triple jumps in a free program, which she did at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.^[2]

Biography

Born in Nagoya, Ito started skating at age 5. Midori landed her first triple jump at age 8. When she was 10 her parents got divorced and she went to live with her coach Machiko Yamada.

Ito's first appearance at a major international competition was the 1981 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, where she won the free skating with a sensational performance that included a triple loop, a triple salchow, and two triple toe loop combinations. Ito had placed only 20th in the compulsory figures and finished 8th in the overall standings at this event. At this time, the 11-year-old Ito was only 3'11" tall and weighed 53 pounds.^[3] She was nicknamed the "Jumping Flea" due to her diminutive size and powerful jumps.

At the 1982 World Junior Championships, Ito won both the short program and free skating, but again weak compulsory figures left her only in 6th place overall. Her free skate at this event included a triple flip and a triple toe loop/triple toe loop combination, and she additionally landed a triple lutz in the exhibition.^[4]

Ito did not compete at the 1983 World Junior event, which took place in December 1982, after having suffered a broken ankle earlier that year. In the fall of 1983, she made her senior international debut at the Ennia Challenge Cup in the Netherlands, a competition that featured the short program and free skating only, without compulsory figures. Here Ito lost a narrow and controversial decision to Katarina Witt, who went on to win the Olympic title a few months later. Ito's skating at this event caused a sensation. Her free skate included six triple jumps—flip, lutz, loop, salchow, and two toe loops—and she also completed a difficult double loop/triple loop combination in the short program.^[5] At the 1984 World Junior Championships, she placed third with another impressive display of triple jumps; again, she won both the short program and free skating, but a low placement in the compulsory figures held her back. Ito also competed at the 1984 World Championships, where she finished 7th.^[6]

She won her first national championship in the 1985 season, but was unable to compete at that year's World Championships after again breaking her ankle.

Ito placed 5th at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. In Calgary, she performed a double loop-triple loop in the short program, and seven triples in the free: Lutz, flip, double axel-half loop- triple salchow, loop, triple toe-triple toe, and salchow. She received 7 "5.9" marks for technical merit, despite skating before the final flight. She became the first woman to land seven triples in a free program. Later that same year, she perfected the triple Axel, which she had been working on since her early teens, and landed it at a regional competition in the Aichi prefecture. She became the first woman to land it in international competition at the 1988 NHK Trophy.^[7] She then repeated the feat at the World Championships in 1989. Her win at the 1989 World Championships was the first world title in the sport for an Asian competitor.^[7] She received five 6.0s for technical merit.

During the start of the 1989–1990 season, Ito made history again at the 1989 NHK Trophy competition, where she received a rare 6.0 technical/6.0 artistic score from the Hungarian judge, and again landed seven triples, including the triple axel. At the 1990 World Championships, Ito failed to defend her title due to a mistake in the compulsory figures that left her in 10th place in that portion of the event. She placed first in both the short and long programs, but due to her mistake in compulsory figures,she placed 2nd overall to Jill Trenary.

When compulsory figures were eliminated from competitions following the 1990 season, Ito was expected to dominate the competitive scene. However, she had a difficult competition at the 1991 World Championships. Ito first suffered a bruising collision with another skater (Laetitia Hubert) during a practice session. Then, in the short program, she placed her jump combination too close to the corner of the rink and fell into the opening in the boards for the television camera. Clearly rattled by these events, Ito then made several errors in her free skate and ended up placing 4th.

At the pre-Olympic event in Albertville in the fall of 1991, she beat rival Kristi Yamaguchi by completing a triple axel and five other triple jumps in her free skate. During the warm-up before the free skate at the 1991 Grand Prix International de Paris (later known as Trophee Eric Bompard), she landed a triple Axel/triple toe loop jump combination, which has still not been equalled by any other female skater.^{[citation needed]}

Ito was one of the favorites for the Olympic title at the 1992 Winter Olympics. After a troubled Olympic short program and encountering problems landing a triple axel during the week, she was in fourth place and needed a solid long program in order to win a medal. Her long program began with a failed triple Axel; in order to win a spot on the podium, Ito added another one to the end of her program and landed it successfully, becoming the first woman to land one in the Olympics. Ito won the silver medal, and apologized to her country for not winning the gold. She turned professional afterwards, bringing the triple Axel for the first time to the professional ranks, and performed with ice shows in Japan. Ito briefly returned to competitive skating in the 1995–1996 season, but without her former success.

During the peak of her career, Ito was an immensely powerful skater, performing much the same jump content as the top male skaters of the time. In addition to being the first female skater to perform the triple axel jump, some years earlier she was also the first to perform a triple/triple jump combination. Ito's energetic skating style did not always find favor with the judges. Later in her career, in trying to adopt a softer and more stereotypically "feminine" style, Ito seemed to lose much of the natural joy that had characterized her earlier skating. Ito also struggled with compulsory figures before they were eliminated in competition after the 1990 season, and in coping with the attention of the Japanese press following her World Championship win.

Midori Ito was well ahead of her time, technically, and is regarded as perhaps the greatest female jumper in the history of the ladies sport: In 1990, Scott Hamilton said "it will be 50 years before we see anything like Midori Ito again,"^[8] and Toller Cranston, the same year, noted that "she is beyond 6.0."^[9]

During the opening ceremonies of the 1998 Winter Olympics, Ito had the honor of lighting the Olympic Flame in the stadium.

Ito returned to competitive figure skating in 2011. She competed at the ISU Adult Figure Skating Competition and placed second in her category, Ladies' Masters Elite II.^[7][10][11]

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
1995–96	The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky	Cinderella by Sergei Prokofiev	Nessun dorma by Giacomo Puccini
1991–92	Tango Jalousie by Jacob Gade Espana Cani by Pascual Marquina Narro	Piano Concerto No. 1 by Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff	Rhythm of the Rain by The Cascades Singin' in the Rain by Nacio Herb Brown Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen On My Own by Claude-Michel Schonberg
1990–91	Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell	Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" by Ludwig van Beethoven Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Variation XVIII by Sergei Rachmaninoff Finlandia by Jean Sibelius	Rhythm of the Rain by The Cascades Singin' in the Rain by Nacio Herb Brown Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen On My Own by Claude-Michel Schonberg
1989–90	Anvil Chorus by Giuseppe Verdi arranged by Jerry Gray Memories of You by Eubie Blake	Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov	Yotei no Matsuri[12] by Yasuhiro Sakurada Mission: Impossible by Lalo Schifrin On My Own by Claude-Michel Schonberg
1988–89	Fantastic Tango[12] by Shinji Wakita	A Classical Rock by Frank Mills Concerto No.1 for Piano by Frank Mills	Somewhere Out There by James Horner Conga by Gloria Estefan & The Miami Sound Machine
1987–88	Yotei no Matsuri[12] by Yasuhiro Sakurada	Le Corsaire Pas de Deux Adagio by Riccardo Drigo Grand Pas Classique Coda by Daniel Auber Paquita Adagio/Coda by Ludwig Minkus	Time Passage by Seiko Matsuda Aramis'78 Image album by Akiko Yano Sweet Dreamer[12] by Yoko Takarada
1986–87	Nine to Five soundtrack by Charles Fox	Magical City[12] by Mika Yamashita	Aramis'78 Image album by Akiko Yano
1985–86	Tyrolean fairy[12] by Mika Yamashita and Chihiro Yamashita	Magical City[12] by Mika Yamashita
1984–85	Sweet Dreamer[12] by Yoko Takarada	Ice Paradice[12] by Tokiko Tsunoda	Sweet Dreamer[12] by Yoko Takarada
1983–84	(original music ?)	Rightning Attacker by Ryudo Uzaki (original music ?)	Kotoriya-no-Mise(The Bird Shop) TV Animation Aim for the Ace! Opening Theme-song by Goh Misawa
1982–83		Rightning Attacker by Ryudo Uzaki
1981–82	Nine to Five soundtrack by Charles Fox

Results

Event	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87	1987–88	1988–89	1989–90	1990–91	1991–92	1995–96
Winter Olympics									5th				2nd
World Championships					7th		11th	8th	6th	1st	2nd	4th		7th
World Junior Championships		8th	6th		3rd
Japanese Championships	3rd				2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st
Japanese Junior Championships	1st			1st
Skate America										2nd		2nd
Skate Canada International						1st
Fujifilm Trophy									1st
Grand Prix International de Paris													1st
NHK Trophy					3rd	1st	1st	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st

Records and achievements

Amateur

• World Champion (1989).
• First woman to land a triple-triple jump combination (1981).
• First woman to land a double loop-triple loop combination (in the short program) (1983).
• First woman to land five different triple jumps in competition (1983).
• First woman to land a triple Axel in competition (1988).
• First and only woman to land six different triple jumps in competition (1989).
• First woman to land a triple Axel in the Olympics (1992).

Awards

• Inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame (2003).

Triple axel

Ito landed 18 triple axels in competition.

1988–89	Aichi Prefecture Championships (LP) Japanese Free Skating Championships (LP) NHK Trophy (LP) Japan Figure Skating Championships (LP) World Championships (LP)
1989–90	NHK Trophy (LP) World Championships (LP)
1990–91	East Japan Championships (LP) NHK Trophy (LP) Japan Figure Skating Championships (LP)
1991–92	East Japan Championships (LP) Trophee Lalique (LP) NHK Trophy (SP(combination with double toe loop), LP(combination with double toe loop)) Japan Figure Skating Championships (SP(combination with double toe loop), LP) Winter Olympics (LP)
1995–96	Japan Figure Skating Championships (LP)

Media appearances

DVD

• 伊藤みどりのフィギュアスケート・ライフ努力編 (2006) – ASIN B000O77KHK
• 伊藤みどりのフィギュアスケート・ライフ人生編 (2007) – ASIN B000OI1BXS
• 伊藤みどりのフィギュアスケート・ライフ (2007) – ASIN B000SB2ZT0

Book

• タイム・パッセージ―時間旅行（1993）- ISBN 9784314100816
• 伊藤みどり物語 (1992) – ISBN 9784872080360
• 氷上の宝石―伊藤みどり写真集 (1993) – ISBN 9784317800362

References

1. ^ http://hicbc.com/radio/kibun/2000asapon/hero/000911/index.htm
2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lSeIr2Jvl0&feature=related
3. ^ "1981 Jr. World's Report", Skating magazine, March 1981
4. ^ "1982 Junior World Championships", Skating magazine, March 1982
5. ^ "Ennia Challenge Cup", Skating magazine, January 1984
6. ^ Skating magazine, April 1984
7. ^ ^{a b c} Flade, Tatjana (September 18, 2011). "Midori Ito Returns to Competition". IFS Magazine. http://www.ifsmagazine.com/articles/611-midori-ito-returns-to-competition. Retrieved September 18, 2011. 
8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv7ZswRD9OM
9. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG6lQ1-o9hw&feature=related
10. ^ Flade, Tatjana (August 17, 2011). "Adult Skaters Embrace Lifelong Passion". IFS Magazine. http://www.ifsmagazine.com/articles/597-adult-skaters-embrace-lifelong-passion. Retrieved September 18, 2011. 
11. ^ Adult 2011 Masters Elite II Free Skating scores
12. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} These were composed by students studying at Yamaha Music Schools.

External links

• Green – Midori Ito Official Blog (Japanese)
• Midori Ito fan site, including extensive biography and pictures

Navigation

Olympic Games
Preceded by Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway	Final Winter Olympic Torchbearer Nagano 1998	Succeeded by 1980 USA Men's Ice Hockey Team

Persondata
Name	Ito, Midori
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 13, 1969
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death