born: 29 december 1981
birthplace: sendai (japan)
nationality: japan
sport: skating
attendance at the olympic games
nagano 1998
turin 2006
awards
olympic medals:
gold: 1
details
other results:
world championships
gold: 1 (2004)
grace on ice
at the age of five, shizuka arakawa went to skating school. her motivation was simple: wearing pretty outfits! very quickly, she developed a passion for skating, and she decided to sacrifice all her free time to training. at the age of eight, she was already able to perform a triple salchow. the young girl from japan thus won five editions of the national championships, three times as a junior and twice as a senior.
in 1998 in nagano, shizuka arakawa participated for the first time in the olympic games, at the tender age of 16. japan had high hopes for her. the emperor and empress of japan even came to see her performance. she finished thirteenth in the final rankings.
four years later, she was not present at the salt lake city games. the skater finished second in her national championships and was not included in the japanese olympic team. in spite of this, shizuka arakawa was successful in other championships, such as the four continents and nhk trophy. in 2004 in dortmund, she became women's world figure skating champion.
in 2006, after a year-long period in which she almost ended her career, shizuka arakawa took part in the turin olympic games. a new coach and a new programme brought out a new, invigorated shizuka. the short programme was a real wager for the japanese skater. she performed a noteworthy sequence to chopin's "fantasie impromptu", finishing third, neck-and-neck with the two favourites, sacha cohen and irina slutskaya. they were only 0.7 of a point apart.
on 23 february 2006, she performed a perfect long programme. accompanied by puccini's "fantasy for violin", she performed a splendid ina bauer, her characteristic figure. her programme was marked by simplicity and by the perfect control she had of it. she played it safe, however, and left out some of the figures planned, a choice which would end up being worthwhile. at the same time, her two direct rivals fell and were relegated to second and third place. shiizuka obtained a score of 191.34, gaining herself the top step of the winner's podium in turin.
thanks to this performance, she took back the only japanese medal from these games: the first one in figure skating since midori ito's silver medal at the albertville games in 1992, and japan's first gold medal in figure skating.
生日： 1981年12月29日
出生地：仙台，日本
国籍：日本
项目：花样滑冰
奥运会参加时间：
1998年长野冬季奥运会
2006年都灵冬季奥运会
奥运成绩：
金牌1枚
其他成绩：
世界锦标赛：
金牌1枚 2004年
冰上精灵
五岁的时候，荒川静香开始走入滑冰学校，当时她的目的很简单，能够穿着漂亮的外衣表演。但很快，她对滑冰就产生浓厚的兴趣，并且将自己所有的空余时间都献给了滑冰训练。八岁的时候，她已经能够完成三周跳。年轻的静香开始在日本全国锦标赛上展露头角，并且五次夺得全国冠军，包括三次少年组和两次成年组。
1998年的长野，荒川静香开始走入奥运会的赛场，尽管年仅16岁，但日本上下都对她寄予厚望，日本天皇和皇太后亲临比赛现场观看她的比赛，但最终她只名列第十三位。
四年后，她没有出席盐湖城的奥运会，在当年的全国锦标赛上，她只名列第二，没能获得出赛资格。尽管如此，荒川静香还是在其他的比赛中取得了不错的成绩，在2004年的多特蒙德，她第一次成为世界冠军。
2005年她遭受了几乎结束她滑冰生涯的打击，但2006年，她仍然参加了都灵冬季奥运会。新的教练和节目编排带来了一个全新的充满活力的荒川静香。在短节目中，她名列第三。
2月23日，伴随着普契尼的小提琴幻想曲（fantasy for violin），她完成了长节目的表演， 并获得191.34分,成功夺得金牌。
她的这枚金牌为日本带来了第一枚奥运会花样滑冰金牌。