Fumie Suguri Bio - Biography

Name Fumie Suguri
Height 5 ft 2 in
Naionality Japanese
Date of Birth December 31, 1980
Place of Birth Chiba, Japan
Famous for Figure Skater
Fumie Suguri is a Japanese figure skater. She is a five-time Japanese National Champion, a three-time World Championship medalist, a three-time Four Continents Champion and the 2003–2004 Grand Prix Final Champion. Suguri began skating at age 5 in Alaska. When she returned to Japan, she began formal training under Coach Nobuo Sato, a ten-time Japanese national champion.

In 1994, while visiting the practice rink for the 1994 World Championships, Suguri was taught the triple Lutz jump by Michelle Kwan, who was competing in the event. In 2003, she won the NHK Trophy, then placed 3rd at Cup of China, thus qualifying for the Grand Prix Final. Suguri won the Final, defeating Sasha Cohen. Suguri is the first Japanese woman to win that competition. Suguri left Sato after the 2004 World Championships after she lost two competitions to Miki Ando, who was also coached by Sato at the time. She moved to Chicago in the United States to train with Oleg Vasiliev in the autumn of 2004. Due to her poor results in the 2004–2005 seasons, the Japanese Skating Federation refused to let her continue working with Vasiliev. Suguri returned to Sato and soon after Ando left him. In the 2005–2006 seasons, Suguri won the Japanese Figure Skating Championships against 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 Championships behind Kimmie Meissner. She became the first Japanese woman to earn three World Championship medals.

In the 2006–2007 seasons, Suguri finished fourth at the Japanese championships behind younger competitors Mao Asada, Miki Ando and Yukari Nakano, and missed a spot to the World Championships held in her home country. She competed at the Four Continents Championships but withdrew due to injury after falling on two jumps in her short program. At the end of the season, Suguri left Sato again as she felt overshadowed by Yukari Nakano, who was also training with Sato at the time. Suguri left Morozov in the summer of 2009 to train with Alexei Mishin in Russia, saying she wanted to work on triple/triple combinations and the triple axel. Mishin neglected Suguri and she spent most of her time with Igor Pashkevich. She finished 7th at the 2010 Japanese National Championships.

In March 2011, Suguri stated that she would continue competing the next season and possibly until 2014. She was unsuccessful in her effort to reach the 2011–2012 Japanese Nationals, finishing 12th in her qualifying competition. She was dealing with an ankle injury.

Fumie Suguri Photos