Gangwon 2024: Shimada Mao showing she's about more than a famous figure skating name - a lot more
The 15-year-old junior world and Grand Prix Final champion cannot wait for her Youth Winter Olympic Games to begin, and it's more than about what happens on the ice. Read the exclusive interview with Olympics.com here.
Figure Skating
Mao.
At the mention of that name, most of those who follow figure skating will think of one - Asada Mao, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic silver medallist and three-time world champion.
But perhaps, in the not too distant future, another Mao will become synonymous with the name.
The hype and expectation surrounding Shimada Mao, 15, are picking up fast and it’s not only because she was named after Asada by her mother.
The accolades and titles have already poured in. Born in Tokyo and based in Kyoto at the heralded skating factory Kinoshita Academy, Shimada has been gliding through the junior ranks.
Last year, she won her maiden World Junior Figure Skating Championship followed by a third straight Japanese junior national crown, joining a select circle including Turin 2006 gold medallist Arakawa Shizuka and two-time world champion Ando Miki in achieving the feat.
In December, Shimada defended her Junior Grand Prix Final title behind a triple Axel and quadruple toeloop in her free skate, becoming the first Japanese, female or male, to go back-to-back at the mid-season spectacle.
Shimada wrapped up 2023 by placing third at the senior nationals for the second consecutive year and now awaits her big goal of the current campaign, the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Gangwon, the Republic of Korea.
“It’s going to be the first and only Youth Olympics of my life,” Shimada said during an exclusive interview with Olympics.com ahead of Gangwon 2024. “I want to enjoy it, which is why I need to work hard so I can have fun when I get there.
“I’m just coming out of New Year’s so I’m slowly getting back into it. I’m not nervous now but once we go back to normal from tomorrow and practice picks up, I think I’ll start to sharpen up and get into it mentally.”
Shimada managed to enjoy some peace of mind after the nationals during the New Year holidays, staying away from her skates by hitting the amusement park and spending time with her grandmothers.
She even caught a firsthand glimpse of one of Japan’s favourite New Year’s pastimes - the Hakone Ekiden, the century-old road relay race held annually on 2 and 3 January, spanning more than 217km from Tokyo to a famed hot-spring resort and back.
Shimada is in a race of her own, so to speak, as she cannot wait for her first Korean journey beyond Gangwon. K-Pop. The food. The streets of Seoul. All of it.
Ask her about what she’s looking forward to most about YOG and the doe-eyed skater mentions the holistic Olympic experience. Make no mistake, Shimada badly wants the gold medal, but equally important to her is the time away from the rink to satisfy a voracious appetite of curiosity.
“There’s going to be all kinds of athletes, in different sports. I want to watch the training for them, too,” she says.
“I’ve been told that at the village, there are places to mingle with other athletes so I’m looking forward to it.
“I don’t know what the athletes’ village looks like but I’m really, really looking forward to it all.”
The world may have to get used to a shot like this of Shimada Mao in the years to come.
Shimada’s senior Olympic Games debut will have to wait until 2030, due to eligibility changes post-Beijing 2022. She will not have turned 17 by 1 July 2025, the start of the Milano-Cortina 2026 season, which is the cut-off age for inclusion at those Winter Games.
As if fate would have it, Asada was once in the same boat. She was on fire during the Turin 2006 Olympic season, winning the senior Grand Prix Final at the tender age of 14, but missed the then 15-year-old eligibility deadline by 87 days for what would have been her first Games.
But in the four years leading up to Vancouver, Asada went on a tear as if to make up for missing out on Turin, becoming world champion, setting record scores, mastering the triple Axel and cementing her status as one of the top female skaters of her generation.
Will the second coming of Mao follow a similar trajectory? Only time will tell, but the latest chapter in a burgeoning career opens in Gangwon on Sunday.
“Through YOG, I want to be able to see myself at the Olympic Games. Down the road, I want to compete at the Games," Shimada said.
“Ever since I took up skating, the Olympics has been my goal. To compete at the Olympics is my dream.
“Once I appear at YOG, I like to think I will have gotten closer to the Olympic Games.”