Riku Miura

Riku Miura
File:Photos – Junior World Championships 2017 – Pairs (Riku MIURA Shoya ICHIHASHI JPN – 13th Place) (1).jpg Miura/Ichihashi at the 2017 World Junior Championships
Personal information
Native name	三浦 璃来
Country represented	Japan
Born	(2001-12-17) December 17, 2001 Takarazuka, Hyōgo, Japan
Home town	Takarazuka, Hyōgo
Height
Partner	Ryuichi Kihara
Former partner	Shoya Ichihashi
Coach	Bruno Marcotte Meagan Duhamel Brian Shales
Former coach	Richard Gauthier Utako Wakamatsu Yukiyasu Oishi Takeshi Honda
Choreographer	Julie Marcotte
Former choreographer	Valérie Saurette Allie Hann-McCurdy
Skating club	Osaka SC
Training locations	Oakville, Ontario
Former training locations	Osaka, Japan
Began skating	2010
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	211.89 2022 Winter Olympics
Short program	74.45 2022 Winter Olympics – Team event
Free skate	141.04 2022 Winter Olympics
Medal record Representing Japan Pairs' figure skating (with Kihara) Olympic Games 2022 Beijing Team World Championships 2022 Montpellier Pairs World Team Trophy 2021 Osaka Team Representing Japan Pairs' figure skating (with Ichihashi) World Team Trophy 2019 Fukuoka Team

Riku Miura (Japanese: 三浦 璃来; born December 17, 2001) is a Japanese pair skater. With her skating partner, Ryuichi Kihara, she is the 2022 World silver medalist, 2021 Skate America silver medalist, the 2021 CS Autumn Classic champion, and the 2020 Japanese national champion. They also are bronze medalists in the team event at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

With her former skating partner, Shoya Ichihashi, she competed in the final segment at three World Junior Championships (2017–19).

Personal life

Miura was born in Takarazuka, Hyōgo.

She enjoys doing karate in her spare time. Her figure skating idol is Sui Wenjing.

Career

Partnership with Ichihashi

With her skating partner, Shoya Ichihashi, she has represented Japan at four ISU Championships. The two finished tenth at the 2018 Four Continents Championships in Taipei, Taiwan, and at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. Their partnership ended in July 2019.

Partnership with Kihara

2019–20 season: Debut of Miura/Kihara

In August 2019, it was announced that Miura had teamed up with Ryuichi Kihara and that the pair would train in Oakville, Ontario at the Skate Oakville Skating Club under Bruno Marcotte, Meagan Duhamel, and Brian Shales.

Miura/Kihara made their international competitive debut at 2019 NHK Trophy, where they finished fifth. They were the only pair competing at the 2019–20 Japan Championships, and had two falls in the short program. The free skate proved more successful, allowing them to claim the Japanese national title and assignments to the ISU championships in the second half of the season.

After an eighth-place finish at the 2020 Four Continents Championships, Miura/Kihara were assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal, but these were cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

2020–21 season

Miura/Kihara were assigned to compete at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but this event was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. Making their season debut at the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, they placed tenth. They finished the season at the 2021 World Team Trophy, where they finished third in both segments, helping Team Japan to the bronze medal.

2021–22 season: Beijing Olympics

Miura/Kihara spent the period after the World Team Trophy training in Japan and the United States, before returning to Canada in September upon the reopening of the borders. They began their season at the 2021 CS Autumn Classic International, where they won both segments of competition, as well as set new personal bests, to take the gold medal overall.

At their first Grand Prix assignment of the season, the 2021 Skate America, Miura/Kihara again scored new personal bests in both segments of competition, as well as overall. Despite placing third in both the short program and the free skate, due to shifting ordinals from their competitors the team won the silver medal between Russian competitors Tarasova/Morozov in first and Boikova/Kozlovskii in third. Their medal marks the first medal for Japan in the pairs event on the Grand Prix circuit since 2011. Competing at the 2021 NHK Trophy at home for their second event, they were third in both programs to take the bronze medal. They finished less than four points behind silver medalists Tarasova/Morozov, a gap more than accounted for by jump and throw errors by Miura. She noted issues in training, and expressed dissatisfaction that she had been unable to fix the problem, but that they were nevertheless satisfied to have achieved their goal of winning a medal. Miura/Kihara's results qualified them to the Grand Prix Final, but it was subsequently cancelled due to restrictions prompted by the Omicron variant.

Due to the Omicron variant, Miura/Kihara did not travel to Japan to participate in the 2021–22 Japan Championships, but were instead named directly to the Japanese Olympic team. They began the 2022 Winter Olympics as the Japanese entries in the Olympic team event. They placed fourth in the short program, securing seven points for the Japanese team. They placed second in the free skate, securing nine points for the Japanese team, which went on to win the bronze medal. This was the first time that Japan had taken a medal in the team event, and Miura/Kihara's presence as a strong pair team was widely cited as the biggest factor in Japan's increased competitiveness. In the pairs event, Miura doubled her triple jump attempt in the short program, as a result of which they placed eighth in the segment. In the free skate, they finished fifth in the segment, rising to seventh place overall.

Days after the Olympics concluded, Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, as a result of which the International Skating Union banned all Russian and Belarusian skaters from competing at the 2022 World Championships. As well, the Chinese Skating Association opted not to send athletes to compete in Montpellier. As those countries' athletes comprised the entirety of the top five pairs at the Olympics, this had a huge impact on the field, and Miura/Kihara entered as medal favourites. In the short program, Miura put a hand down after stepping out on their throw triple Lutz, but they finished third in the segment, taking a bronze small medal. They had a rough free skate, with errors on both jumping passes and Miura falling on a throw triple loop. They still finished third in that segment as well, but took the silver medal overall. They became the second Japanese pair team to win a World medal. Miura opined afterward "now we secure the medal, but I don't think our performance was worth winning a medal today. We regret our performance today, so next season I want to push ourselves hard and to the very end and we want to practice hard." Their coach, Bruno Marcotte, countered that "I told them to look at their silver medals and think: 'This is the result of all the work you did, all the competitions, the year and a half that you had to stay in Canada, away from your families, because of COVID-19. These medals represent all of that.'"

Programs

File:Photos – Junior World Championships 2017 – Pairs (Riku MIURA Shoya ICHIHASHI JPN – 13th Place) (6).jpg

Miura and Ichihashi at the 2017 World Junior Championships

With Kihara

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2021–2022	Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen performed by k.d. lang choreo. by Julie Marcotte	Woman by Shawn Phillips choreo. by Julie Marcotte	I Lived by OneRepublic
2020–2021			Million Reasons by Lady Gaga
2019–2020	Nocturnal Animals by Abel Korzeniowski choreo. by Allie Hann-McCurdy	Fix You by Coldplay choreo. by Valérie Saurette	Million Reasons by Lady Gaga

With Ichihashi

Season	Short program	Free skating
2018–2019	Cry Me a River by Michael Bublé choreo. by Julie Marcotte	Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell choreo. by Valérie Saurette
2017–2018	Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Schönberg	Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell
2016–2017	Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Schönberg	Charlie Chaplin films

Competitive highlights

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Pairs with Kihara

International
Event	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23
Olympics			7th
Worlds	C	10th	2nd
Four Continents	8th
GP Final			C
GP NHK Trophy	5th		3rd	TBD
GP Skate America			2nd
GP Skate Canada		C		TBD
CS Autumn Classic			1st
National
Japan Champ.	1st		WD
Team events
Olympics			3rd T
World Team Trophy		3rd T 3rd P
TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew; C = Event cancelled T = Team result; P = Personal result. Medals awarded for team result only.

Pairs with Ichihashi

International
Event	15–16	16–17	17–18	18–19
Four Continents			10th
CS Golden Spin			6th
International: Junior
Junior Worlds		13th	10th	14th
JGP Austria				7th
JGP Canada				4th
JGP Latvia			10th
JGP Poland			10th
Bavarian Open	7th
Toruń Cup		1st
National
Japan Champ.			3rd
Japan Jr. Champ.	1st	1st
Team events
World Team Trophy				2nd T 6th P
J = Junior level

Women's singles

National
Event	14–15
Japan Novice Championships	28th A
Levels: A = Novice A

Detailed Results

With Kihara

2021–22 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 21–27, 2022	2022 World Championships	3 71.58	3 127.97	2 199.55
February 18–19, 2022	2022 Winter Olympics	8 70.85	5 141.04	7 211.89
February 4–7, 2022	2022 Winter Olympics – Team event	4 74.45	2 139.60	3T
November 12–14, 2021	2021 NHK Trophy	3 73.98	3 135.44	3 209.42
October 22–24, 2021	2021 Skate America	3 72.63	3 135.57	2 208.20
September 16–18, 2021	2021 CS Autumn Classic International	1 72.32	1 131.74	1 204.06
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
April 15–18, 2021	2021 World Team Trophy	3 65.82	3 130.83	3T/3P 196.65
March 22–28, 2021	2021 World Championships	8 64.37	10 120.04	10 184.41
2019–20 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
February 4 – 9, 2020	2020 Four Continents Championships	9 57.45	8 110.05	8 167.50
December 18–22, 2019	2019–20 Japan Championships	1 53.95	1 116.16	1 170.11
November 22–24, 2019	2019 NHK Trophy	6 62.41	6 117.53	5 179.94

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Riku MIURA / Ryuichi KIHARA at the International Skating Union
• Riku MIURA / Shoya ICHIHASHI at the International Skating Union