Japan speed skating star Takagi Miho continues remarkable career at Beijing 2022

Japan speed skating star Takagi Miho knows all about pressure, having made her Olympic Winter Games debut as a 15-year-old at Vancouver 2010.

So when sister Takagi Nana fell on the last bend before the finish line in the Beijing 2022 women’s team pursuit final, handing Canada a certain gold medal and Japan the silver, Miho was quick to wrap her arms around her older sibling.

"I couldn't find any words to tell her at that moment," Takagi Miho said. "I just wanted to be close to her and give her a hug." 

It’s been another epic Winter Olympics for the 27-year-old, who is at her third Olympic Winter Games.

Competing in five events at Beijing 2022, the Hokaido-born skater won a silver medal in the women’s 1500m behind the record-breaking Ireen Wust, a silver medal in the women’s 500m behind the trail-blazing Erin Jackson, the silver medal in the women’s team pursuit and finished sixth in her opening event, the women’s 3000m.

Takagi’s fifth and final event at her third Games is the women’s 1000m on Thursday 17 February.

It’s an event the reigning sprint world champion is again expected to perform strongly in, and won a bronze medal at PyeongChang 2018.

The incredible competition programme is another chapter in an already brilliant and fascinating career.

Four years ago at PyeongChang 2018, Takagi won three medals; gold in the women’s team pursuit, silver in the women’s 1500m and the bronze in the women’s 1000m.

Prior to that she missed selection for Sochi 2014 by placing fifth in all distances at the Japanese Olympic Trials in 2013.

It was a surprising turn of events after the remarkable scenes of 2010, when as a 15-year-old Takagi became the youngest Japanese Olympic speed skater as well as the youngest Olympic speed skater in the 21st century.

At Vancouver 2010, the teenager finished 23rd in the women’s 1500m and 35th in the women’s 1000m, which at the time she expressed disappointment about.

It was a massive learning experience for her though and having been a junior football star, she said she had been skating more as a hobby than anything serious, training alongside other junior high school students, with rigours far below the expectations of the senior program.

Those expectations and pressures of course soon changed and the mental strength to overcome disappointments and the spotlight took some getting used to for Takagi.

But 12 years later she is one of the icons of the sport and Japan’s Olympic Team Captain at Beijing 2022.

With her sister Nana, 29, they become the first pair of speed skating siblings to both appear at three Olympic Winter Games, after Nana competed at Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018.

The records are widespread for Miho who with six medals, has also won the most of any Japanese Winter Olympian in history.

The possibility of a seventh Olympic Winter Games medal beckons, too, when the women’s 1000m event takes place at the National Speed Skating Oval from 16:30 CST on Thursday 17 February.

Keep up with all the action in our Live Blog updates throughout Beijing 2022, here.