Shun Sato (figure skater)

Shun Sato
File:Shun Sato at the 2019 JGP Lake Placid - Awarding ceremony.jpg Sato at 2019 JGP United States
Personal information
Native name	佐藤 駿
Country represented	Japan
Born	(2004-02-06) February 6, 2004 Sendai, Japan
Home town	Saitama, Japan
Height
Coach	Keiko Asano Tadao Kusaka Takahito Mura
Choreographer	Kenji Miyamoto Guillaume Cizeron
Former choreographer	Yuka Sato Masahiro Kawagoe Misao Sato Benoît Richaud
Skating club	AIM Services , Meiji University
Former skating club	Saitama Sakae High School Fuji Corporation
Training locations	Saitama, Japan
Former training locations	Sendai, Japan
Began skating	2009
World standing	25 (2021–22) 37 (2020–21) 54 (2019–20)
Season's bests	13 (2019–20)
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	264.99 2021 Internationaux de France
Short program	95.08 2023 Challenge Cup
Free skate	180.62 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo
Medal record Representing Japan Four Continents Championships 2023 Colorado Springs Men's singles World Team Trophy 2023 Tokyo Team Junior Grand Prix Final 2019–20 Turin Men's singles

Shun Sato (佐藤 駿, Satō Shun, born February 6, 2004) is a Japanese figure skater. He is the 2023 Four Continents bronze medalist, a 5 time Grand Prix medalist (3 silver, 2 bronze), a two-time ISU Challenger Series medalist (2 silver), and the 2020 Bavarian Open champion. At the junior level, Sato is the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and a two-time Japan Junior national silver medalist.

He is the former junior world record holder for the men's free skating and combined total score and is known for his jumping prowess.

Personal life

Sato was born on February 6, 2004, in Sendai, Japan.

His favorite animals are pandas. Sato's figure skating idol is fellow Sendai native Yuzuru Hanyu, who gave him an amulet when Sato was five years old.

Sato is currently a student at Meiji University, studying at the School of Political Science and Economics.

Career

Early career

Sato began skating in 2009. He is a four-time Japanese national novice champion and the 2018–19 Japanese national junior silver medalist. On the junior level, Sato is also the 2018 Bavarian Open silver medalist and the 2019 International Challenge Cup champion.

As the four-time Japanese national novice champion, Sato was invited to skate in the gala at the 2015 NHK Trophy, 2016 NHK Trophy and 2017 World Team Trophy. He was also invited to skate in the gala at the 2019 World Championships as the silver medalist in the 2018 Japanese junior nationals.

2019–2020 season: JGP Final champion

Sato won the gold medal in his Junior Grand Prix debut at 2019 JGP United States, ahead of reigning JGP Final champion Stephen Gogolev of Canada. He then won bronze at 2019 JGP Croatia. Sato's results qualified him to the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final. At the JGP Final, he set new junior world records for the free skating and the combined score en route to winning the gold medal, ahead of Russians Andrei Mozalev and Daniil Samsonov. He remarked: "I was surprised that I could win here."

Sato won the silver medal at the 2019–20 Japan Junior Championships, behind Yuma Kagiyama and ahead of Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda. As a result, he was invited to compete in the senior division at the 2019–20 Japan Championships, alongside the rest of the top six finishers in the junior division. Sato placed fifth in the senior event and was named to the team for the 2020 World Junior Championships with Kagiyama and placed sixth there.

2020–2021 season: International senior debut

Competing domestically, Sato won the silver medal at the Kanto Regional championship and then the gold medal at the Eastern Sectional championship, thus qualifying for a berth at the national championship. Making his Grand Prix debut at the 2020 NHK Trophy, Sato placed fifth. He was fifth as well at the 2020–21 Japan Championships.

2021–2022 season: First Grand Prix medal

Sato started the season competing at 2021 Japan Open, where he placed second in the men's free program after landing four quadruple jumps for the first time and won the gold medal with his teammates. He was then assigned to participate in the 2021 Asian Open Trophy, which served as a test event for the 2022 Winter Olympics, where he won a silver medal with unofficial personal bests in the short program and total score.

At his first Grand Prix event, 2021 Skate America, Sato dislocated his left acromioclavicular joint on a fall during practice. He thought about withdrawing, but despite severe pain, he decided to compete with the help of painkillers and without changing his planned programs' layout. He placed fifth in the short program and fourth in the free skate and overall. At this second event, the 2021 Internationaux de France, Sato was fourth in the short program and third in the free skate, taking the silver medal overall, his first on the Grand Prix. Reflecting on his performance, he said that he was "really happy to be on the podium for the first time, but I need to catch up to Yuma, so I will work hard."

At the 2021–22 Japan Championships, Sato finished in seventh place. He was assigned to compete at the 2022 World Junior Championships. He subsequently declined to compete in the World Junior Championships due to his left shoulder injury and was replaced by Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda.

2022–2023 season: Four Continents bronze

File:FCC Day3 0783 01.jpg

Sato at the 2023 Four Continents Championships

Given two Grand Prix assignments, Sato began the season at the 2022 MK John Wilson Trophy. He was narrowly fourth in the short program, finished third in the free skate, and took the bronze medal. Despite a fall on his quad Lutz attempt in the free skate, he said, "the mistakes I made didn't affect my performance, and I went through until the end. So I'm quite happy about it." At his second event, the 2022 Grand Prix of Espoo, Sato fell on his quad Lutz attempt, finishing third in that segment. Needing at least a second place to qualify for the Grand Prix Final, Sato rallied in the free skate, placing second in that segment and rising to second overall. Celebrating his successful qualification, he said it "always has been a dream of mine, but I couldn't go with the cancellations. I put a lot of effort into trying to make the Grand Prix Final."

Competing at the Final in Turin, Sato placed sixth of six skaters in the short program after falling on his opening quad Lutz attempt and performing only a quad-double jump combination. He rallied in the free skate, moving up to fourth overall. He was fourth as well at the 2022–23 Japan Championships, finishing 1.20 points back of bronze medalist Kazuki Tomono. He was named first alternate for the 2023 World Championships, and assigned to compete at both the 2023 Winter World University Games and the 2023 Four Continents Championships.

Sato was third in the short program at the University Games, but dropped to fifth after the free skate. He was sixth in the short program at the Four Continents Championships after jump errors. A clean free skate, but for an edge call on a triple flip jump, saw him place third in that segment and rise to third overall, taking the bronze medal. Sato noted his change of fortunes, commenting that "last year at this time I was undergoing surgery and right now a year later I won third place at Four Continents." He said that the short program errors that had been plaguing him all season were an area of focus going forward. He then won gold at the International Challenge Cup.

With national champion Shoma Uno suffering from an ankle injury and withdrawing from the 2023 World Team Trophy as a result, Sato was named to replace him on Team Japan. In the short program he fell on his quad Lutz attempt and managed only a quad-double jump combination, placing eleventh in the segment. He improved in the free skate, coming eighth, and sharing in Team Japan's bronze medal.

2023–2024 season

Sato won the silver medal at the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy, his first competition of the season. He began the Grand Prix at the 2023 Skate America. Despite stepping out of his quad flip attempt in the short program, he broke the 90-point barrier in the segment for the first time (91.61) and finished third in the segment. In the free skate he landed only one of three quads cleanly, coming fourth in the segment, but he remained in third place overall and won the bronze medal. Sato was second in the short program at the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo, but won the free skate with a new personal best score of 182.93; however, he remained second overall, 1.22 points behind Kao Miura. Sato said he was "happy to give a good performance for my fans and I hope to keep the momentum."

At the 2023–24 Japan Championships, Sato finished fifth, saying he was both "happy and frustrated" with his results at the event.

World records and achievements

Junior world record scores

Sato is the former junior world record holder for the free skating and total score.

• FS – Free skating

World records in the junior men's singles free skating and combined total score

No.	Date	Score	Seg.	Event	Place	Note
1	December 7, 2019	177.86	FS	2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final	Turin	Surpassed by Ilia Malinin at the 2022 World Junior Championships
2		255.11	Total

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2023–2024	Libertango by Ástor Piazzolla performed by Héctor Ulises Passarella, Luis Bacalov, & Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia choreo. by Kenji Miyamoto	The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi arranged by Max Richter choreo. by Guillaume Cizeron	Secrets by OneRepublic
2022–2023	Carol of the Bells performed by Lindsey Stirling choreo. by Yuka Sato	Red Violin by Ikuko Kawai choreo. by Kenji Miyamoto	Flower Dance by DJ Okawari
2021–2022	The Four Seasons: Summer by Antonio Vivaldi choreo. by Yuka Sato	The Point of No Return Masquerade (from The Phantom of the Opera) by Andrew Lloyd Webber Phantasia by Julian Lloyd Webber, Geoffrey Alexander choreo. by Kenji Miyamoto	Arrivée des Camionneurs (from The Young Girls of Rochefort) by Michel Legrand choreo. by Misao Sato
2020–2021	Pirates of the Caribbean: Davy Jones & Imperial March performed by Samuel Kim Pirates of the Caribbean performed by Peter Bence To the Pirate's Cave/Skull and Crossbones performed by City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra choreo. by Benoît Richaud	Battle of the Kings House of Cards Danuvius Guardians at the Gate by audiomachine choreo. by Benoît Richaud	Headlight by MONKEY MAJIK choreo. by Keiko Asano
2019–2020	Arrivée des Camionneurs (from The Young Girls of Rochefort) by Michel Legrand choreo. by Misao Sato	Romeo and Juliet by Nino Rota choreo. by Masahiro Kawagoe	Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence) by Ryuichi Sakamoto choreo. by Masahiro Kawagoe
2018–2019	Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence) by Ryuichi Sakamoto choreo. by Masahiro Kawagoe	Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona choreo. by Misao Sato	Flower Dance by DJ Okawari
2017–2018	New York, New York by John Kander	Piano Concerto by Edvard Grieg

Competitive highlights

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

2017–18 season to present

International
Event	17–18	18–19	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23	23–24
Four Continents						3rd	TBD
GP Final						4th
GP Finland						2nd	2nd
GP France					2nd
GP NHK Trophy				5th
GP Skate America					4th		3rd
GP Wilson Trophy						3rd
CS Asian Open					2nd
CS Finlandia							2nd
World University Games						5th
Bavarian Open			1st
Challenge Cup						1st
International: Junior
Junior Worlds			6th		WD
JGP Final			1st
JGP Croatia			3rd
JGP USA			1st
Challenge Cup		1st
Bavarian Open	2nd
National
Japan Champ.	16th	12th	5th	5th	7th	4th	5th
Japan Junior	6th	2nd	2nd
Eastern Sect.	1st J	2nd J	3rd J	1st			1st
Kanto Reg.		1st J		2nd
Tohoku-Hokkaido Reg.	2nd J
Tokyo Reg.						4th	2nd
Team events
World Team Trophy						3rd T 10th P
Japan Open					1st T 2nd P
TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew Levels: J = Junior T = Team result; P = Personal result. Medals awarded for team results only.

Earlier seasons

International: Advanced novice
Event	13–14	14–15	15–16	16–17
Asian Trophy				1st
Bavarian Open				3rd
Gardena Trophy		2nd
National
Japan Junior			15th	15th
Japan Novice	1st B	1st B	1st A	1st A
Tohoku-Hokkaido Reg.			1st A	1st A
Levels: A = Novice A; B = Novice B

Detailed results

ISU personal best scores in the +5/-5 GOE system 

Segment	Type	Score	Event
Total	TSS	264.99	2021 Internationaux de France
Short program	TSS	91.61	2023 Skate America
	TES	50.10	2023 Skate America
	PCS	41.51	2023 Skate America
Free skating	TSS	180.62	2022 Grand Prix of Espoo
	TES	100.51	2022 Grand Prix Final
	PCS	82.89	2022 Grand Prix of Espoo

Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships.

Senior level

2023–24 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 30-February 4, 2024	2024 Four Continents Championships			TBD
December 20–24, 2023	2023–24 Japan Championships	5 89.80	6 183.24	5 273.04
November 17–19, 2023	2023 Grand Prix of Espoo	2 90.41	1 182.93	2 273.34
October 20–22, 2023	2023 Skate America	3 91.61	4 155.89	3 247.50
October 4–8, 2023	2023 CS Finlandia Trophy	2 87.47	2 173.76	2 261.23
2022–23 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
April 13–16, 2023	2023 World Team Trophy	11 76.45	8 164.86	3T / 10P 241.31
February 23–26, 2023	2023 Challenge Cup	1 95.08	1 167.12	1 262.20
February 7–12, 2023	2023 Four Continents Championships	6 80.81	3 178.33	3 259.14
January 12–22, 2023	2023 Winter World University Games	3 84.43	5 146.30	5 230.73
December 21–25, 2022	2022–23 Japan Championships	5 81.78	3 167.86	4 249.64
December 8–11, 2022	2022–23 Grand Prix Final	6 76.62	4 173.54	4 250.16
November 25–27, 2022	2022 Grand Prix of Espoo	3 81.59	2 180.62	2 262.21
November 11–13, 2022	2022 MK John Wilson Trophy	4 82.68	3 166.35	3 249.03
2021–22 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
December 22–26, 2021	2021–22 Japan Championships	8 87.27	6 164.86	7 252.13
November 19–21, 2021	2021 Internationaux de France	4 87.82	3 177.17	2 264.99
October 22–24, 2021	2021 Skate America	5 80.52	4 166.53	4 247.05
October 13–17, 2021	2021 CS Asian Open Trophy	2 90.77	2 165.39	2 256.16
October 3, 2021	2021 Japan Open	–	2 179.32	1T
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
December 24–27, 2020	2020–21 Japan Championships	5 83.31	6 153.21	5 236.52
November 27–29, 2020	2020 NHK Trophy	7 72.04	4 142.71	5 214.75

Junior level

2019–20 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total
March 2–8, 2020	2020 World Junior Championships	Junior	5 79.30	6 142.32	6 221.62
February 3–9, 2020	2020 Bavarian Open	Senior	1 82.18	1 160.13	1 242.31
December 18–22, 2019	2019–20 Japan Championships	Senior	3 82.68	6 163.82	5 246.50
December 5–8, 2019	2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final	Junior	3 77.25	1 177.86	1 255.11
November 15–17, 2019	2019–20 Japan Junior Championships	Junior	3 74.19	2 139.01	2 213.20
September 25–28, 2019	2019 JGP Croatia	Junior	4 78.41	4 141.28	3 219.69
August 28–31, 2019	2019 JGP United States	Junior	1 79.19	1 137.93	1 217.12
2018–19 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total
February 21–24, 2019	International Challenge Cup	Junior	1 71.17	1 128.67	1 199.84
December 20–24, 2018	2018–19 Japan Championships	Senior	16 64.89	9 140.06	12 204.95
November 23–25, 2018	2018–19 Japan Junior Championships	Junior	6 66.01	1 156.29	2 222.30
2017–18 season
January 26–31, 2018	2018 Bavarian Open	Junior	1 63.71	3 119.63	2 183.34
December 20–24, 2017	2017–18 Japan Championships	Senior	20 57.77	16 127.75	6 185.52
November 24–26, 2017	2017–18 Japan Junior Championships	Junior	11 59.64	6 120.56	6 180.20

External links

• Shun Sato at the International Skating Union
• Shun Sato | IMG (Japanese)
• Shun Sato on Instagram

World Junior Record Holders
Preceded by Daniil Samsonov	Men's Junior Free Skating December 7, 2019 – April 16, 2022	Succeeded by Ilia Malinin
Preceded by Daniil Samsonov	Men's Junior Total Score December 7, 2019 – April 16, 2022	Succeeded by Ilia Malinin