Mikiko Yoshioka took part in the National Sports Festival ( kokutai ) in cross-country skiing while studying at Ōtemon Gakuin University . As an employee of Sumitomo Leasing , she started the sport of skeleton in 1994 and became one of the most successful Japanese skeleton athletes in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Japanese competed in her first international race in the skeleton World Cup in La Plagne in January 1997 and was already racing in the first World Cup season for women. In her very first race, she finished sixth, her best career result. Until 2001 she regularly took part in World Cup races. The best result in the overall standings was ninth in the 1999/2000 season . In 2000, Yoshioka was also one of the first women to compete in the Skeleton World Championships . At the first World Championships in Igls , she finished 12th. A year later she finished 18th in Calgary . Nationally , Yoshioka won the titles in 1999 and 2001 and was runner-up in 1998 and 2000.
Japan
