Misato Komatsubara Helps Japan to Its First Olympic Figure Skating Team Medal

Ice dancer Misato Komatsubara has helped Japan make history at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Japan finished third in the figure skating team event at the Capital Indoor Stadium today, behind the ROC and the United States, and it's the first time the country has made the podium since the event began in 2014.

Komatsubara and her husband and skating partner, Tim Koleto, skated both of Japan's dance programs. They were seventh in the rhythm dance, earning four points, and fifth of the five teams in the free dance, where their Memoirs of a Geisha routine with level-four twizzles and lifts scored 98.66 and added six more.

Every point counted. Kaori Sakamoto's season's best of 148.66 in the women's free skate and a personal best of 139.60 from pairs Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara pushed Japan over the line, after Shoma Uno, Yuma Kagiyama and Wakaba Higuchi did their part earlier in the week.

Getting here took years. Koleto, who was born in Montana, had to live in Japan and earn citizenship before the pair could represent the country. Komatsubara, who once skated for Italy, told Europe on Ice this week why she never gave up her own nationality:

I love Japan. To change my nationality for skating was difficult for me. It is not something I could stake on a dream. I only have admiration for Tim for making the decision and for the effort he put in afterwards.

Off the ice, her biography describes her as vegan, and her official Beijing 2022 athlete profile lists vegan restaurants among her hobbies.

In November 2020 we reported that Komatsubara and Koleto had become the first Japanese pair to win the NHK Trophy ice dance. Four years ago in PyeongChang, Canadian pairs skater Meagan Duhamel won Olympic team gold and rescued a dog destined for the dinner table.

A first for Japan, with plants on the plate.