Maki TABATA

The "successor" to Seiko Hashimoto, Maki Tabata was a member of the Japanese national team for almost two decades. Although she belonged to the world's best, she never won any major tournaments. Still her collection of prizes is impressive. She won a bronze at the 1993 World Junior Championships, and equalled that performance with the seniors in 2000. At the World Single Distance Championships, she won six medals, two silvers (1,500 m in 2001 and 2003) and four bronze (3,000 m in 2000, 5,000 m in 2001 and team pursuit in 2005 and 2009). With the Japanese team pursuit team, she also earned a surprise silver medal in the 2010 Olympics, finishing second behind Germany in a dramatic finish. She won the Asian World Championship Qualifier (the unofficial Asian Championships) a record six times, while finishing on the podium four more times. In World Cup competition, she won one race (a team pursuit), but collected numerous second and third places. In 2003, she also took home two titles from the Asian Games. Maki Tabata, who missed the home Olympics in Nagano in 1998 due to a broken ankle, attempted to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics in track cycling, but failed to qualify. She did win the 2012 Asian title in the individual pursuit.

Personal Bests: 500 – 39.18 (2001); 1000 – 1:16.00 (2002); 1500 – 1:54.56 (2006); 3000 – 4:01.01 (2002); 5000 – 7:00.09 (2006).