Aiko Uemura

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Aiko Uemura Freestyle skiing
Aiko Uemura on the victory podium at the 2009 World Cup in Inawashiro
nation JapanJapan Japan
birthday December 9, 1979
place of birth Itami
size 156 cm
Weight 50 kg
Career
discipline Moguls, dual moguls
society Kitano Construction Corp Ski Club
status resigned
End of career 2014
Medal table
World championships 2 × gold 0 × silver 2 × bronze
Asian Games 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
FIS Freestyle Skiing World Championships
bronze Whistler 2001 Moguls
bronze Ruka 2005 Dual moguls
gold Inawashiro 2009 Moguls
gold Inawashiro 2009 Dual moguls
Asian Games logo Winter Asian Games
gold Aomori 2003 Moguls
Placements in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup
 Debut in the World Cup March 23, 1996
 World Cup victories 10
 Overall World Cup 3rd (2007/08)
 Mughal World Cup 1. (2007/08)
 Dual Moguls World Cup 5. (1999/2000, 2002/03)
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Moguls 9 9 11
 Dual moguls 1 5 1
 

Aiko Uemura ( Japanese 上 村 愛 子 , Uemura Aiko ; born December 9, 1979 in Itami , Hyōgo Prefecture ) is a former Japanese freestyle skier . She specialized in the disciplines of moguls and dual moguls ( moguls ) and with two world championship titles is one of the world's most successful athletes. She started for the operations team of her employer, the Nagano- based construction company Kitano Kensetsu.

biography

Uemura grew up in the ski resort of Hakuba near Nagano , where she learned to ski. On March 23, 1996, she made her debut in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup and immediately achieved third place in Hasliberg as the youngest of all participants. In the following two winters, however, she struggled to confirm this result and never got past seventh place. She also reached seventh place at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, home. In the 1998/99 season two more podium places were added, as fourth in the Moguls competition of the 1999 World Cup in Hasliberg, she narrowly missed a medal.

There were three more podium places in the 1999/2000 season, and even four in the 2000/01 season, but a victory was still a long time coming. In contrast, Uemura won the Moguls bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships in Whistler , while she was fourth in the Dual Moguls. Also in the 2001/02 season she did not manage to win, despite two further podium places. At the 2002 Winter Olympics , she placed sixth.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Uemura achieved her first World Cup victory on January 18, 2003 in Lake Placid , followed by three second places. She also won the gold medal at the 2003 Asian Winter Games . The 2003 World Championship in Deer Valley was rather disappointing, with a 14th place as the best result. In the 2003/04 season she did not reach a podium for the first time since 1998. The 2004/05 season was more successful with the second World Cup victory in Voss and the dual Moguls bronze medal at the 2005 World Cup in Ruka .

Uemura's best performances in the 2005/06 season were a third place in the World Cup and fifth place at the 2006 Winter Olympics , which means she missed the medal she was looking for in her third Olympic participation. Due to an injury, she was only able to tackle the 2006/07 season a few weeks late, and a sixth place remained the best result.

Uemura had been one of the best athletes for years, but it wasn't until the 2007/08 season that she achieved her breakthrough to the top of the world. After three top 10 results at the beginning of the season, she was able to improve significantly and won five World Cup events in a row from mid-February to mid-March 2008. With a big lead she secured the Moguls discipline ranking in the World Cup and achieved third place in the overall World Cup. Two more World Cup victories followed in the 2008/09 season, but her preparation was geared entirely towards the final World Cup in Japan in 2009 : In Inawashiro , Uemura won gold in both the Moguls and the Dual Moguls.

In June 2009 Uemura married the ski racer Kentaro Minagawa . In her fourth Olympic participation, 2010 in Vancouver , she narrowly missed a medal and finished fourth. In the 2011/12 World Cup season she was on the podium once, twice in the 2012/13 winter and once during the season. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , she was again unable to win a medal and finished fourth.

Uemura ended her active career after the 2013-14 season .

successes

Olympic games

World championships

World Cup ratings

World Cup victories

Uemura has achieved 36 podiums so far, including 10 wins:

date place country discipline
January 16, 2003 Lake Placid United States Moguls
February 26, 2005 Voss Norway Moguls
February 16, 2008 Inawashiro Japan Moguls
March 1, 2008 Marienbad Czech Republic Moguls
March 7, 2008 Are Sweden Moguls
March 8, 2008 Are Sweden Dual moguls
March 15, 2008 Valmalenco Italy Moguls
January 24, 2009 Mont Gabriel Canada Moguls
February 20, 2009 Voss Norway Moguls
March 7, 2010 Inawashiro Japan Moguls

More Achievements

  • Winter Asian Games 2003 : 1st Moguls
  • 4 Japanese championship titles (Dual Moguls 2004; Moguls 2004, 2006 and 2007)
  • 1 win in the European Cup
  • 1 win in the Nor-Am Cup
  • 3 wins in the Australia New Zealand Cup

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olympic skiing stars Uemura, Minagawa tie at nuptial podium. Japan Times , June 12, 2009, accessed January 21, 2010 .
  2. ↑ Time to say good-bye: Freestyle Skiing retirements ( English ) FIS-Ski.com. April 30, 2014. Archived from the original on September 2, 2015. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 5, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fis-ski.com
personal data
SURNAME Uemura, Aiko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 上 村 愛 子 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese freestyle skier
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Itami , Japan