Nao Kodaira

	Nao Kodaira
nation	Japan
birthday	26th May 1986 (age 34)
place of birth	Chino , Japan
Career
status	active
Medal table
winter Olympics
Individual distance world championships
Sprint World Championships
	Placements in the speed skating world cup
Debut in the World Cup	November 10, 2006
World Cup victories	34 (including 32 individual wins)
Grand toilet	3. ( 2017/18 )
Total toilet 500	1. ( 2014/15 , 2016/17 , 2019/20 )
Total toilet 1000	2. (2019/20)
	last change: March 8, 2020

Nao Kodaira ( Japanese 小平奈緒 Kodaira Nao ; born May 26, 1986 in Chino ) is a Japanese speed skater .

Career

Kodaira made her World Cup debut at the first stop of the 2006/07 season in November 2006 in Heerenveen . The sprint specialist was able to establish herself at the top of the world straight away and achieved eleventh place over 500 m in her first race. In December she was among the top 10 at the World Cup in Harbin for the first time (eighth place each over 500 and 1000 meters). At the following World Cup in Nagano she reached her first podium with third place over 1000 m. At the 2007 World Individual Distance Championships in Salt Lake City , she finished 13th over 1000 m. In the overall World Cup over 1000 m she came in tenth place. The following year she won 12th place over 1000 m at the individual distance world championships in Nagona . At the beginning of the 2009/10 season she came in third place over 500 m and second place over 1000 m at the World Cup in Berlin . In the further course of the season she reached third place over 1000 m in Salt Lake City and third place in the team pursuit in Heerenveen. This made her eighth in the overall World Cup over 1000 m and sixth in the overall World Cup over 500 m. In January 2010 she was fourth in the sprint all- around at the Sprint World Championships in Obihiro . At her first Olympic participation in 2010 in Vancouver she finished 12th over 500 meters and fifth over 1000 and 1500 meters; in the team pursuit she won the silver medal together with Masako Hozumi and Maki Tabata .

In the 2010/11 season Kodaira came in the World Cup over 500 m twice in third place and over 1000 m twice in second and once in third place. At the Sprint World Championship 2011 in Heerenveen , she was fifth in the sprint all-around event. In March 2011, she took 16th place over 1000 m at the individual distance world championships in Inzell , eighth place in the 2 × 500 m run and fourth place in the team pursuit. The season ended in fifth place in the overall world cup over 500 m and fourth in the overall world cup over 1000 m. In the following season , she took third place in the 500 m World Cup in Astana and second in Salt Lake City , thus reaching sixth place in the overall 500 m World Cup. In January 2012 she came in at the Sprint World Championships in Calgary on 13th place. At the individual distance world championships in Heerenveen in 2012 , she finished 18th in the 2 × 500 m run and 12th place over 1000 m. At the beginning of the 2012/13 season she came on the podium again at the World Cup in Heerenveen with third place over 500 m. In the further course of the season she reached second place once and third place twice over 500 m. In the overall world cup over 500 m she was seventh. At the Sprint World Championships 2013 in Salt Lake City she achieved 22nd place and at the Individual Distance World Championships 2013 in Sochi, 16th place over 1000 m and sixth place in the 2 × 500 m run. In the 2013/14 season she was fifth in the overall World Cup over 500 m. She achieved two third places over 500 m. In January 2014 she came in fifth place in the sprint all-around at the Sprint World Championships in Nagano . At the following Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, she finished 13th in the 1000 m and fifth in the 2 × 500 m run.

At the beginning of the 2014/15 season , Kodaira won her first World Cup victory at the 500 m World Cup in Seoul . Furthermore, she came in second place five times and in third place twice over the 500 m, thus winning the overall World Cup over 500 m. In addition, she finished tenth in the overall World Cup over 1000 m and eighth in the overall World Cup. At the individual distance world championships in 2015 in Heerenveen , she won the bronze medal in the 2 × 500 m run and finished 11th over 1000 m. At the beginning of the following season she won the team sprint at the World Cup in Calgary . This was followed by third place in the team sprint in Salt Lake City and second in Heerenveen. At the individual distance world championships in 2016 in Kolomna she was sixth in the 2 × 500 m run and eighth at the sprint world championship in 2016 in Seoul. In the 2016/17 season she won eight World Cup victories over 500 m and thus won the overall discipline ranking. In addition, she won the team sprint in Heerenveen and took second place three times and third place once and achieved fourth place in both the 1000 m World Cup and fourth place in the overall World Cup. In February 2017 she took in the Sprint World Championships gold medal in Calgary and at the Single Distance World Championships in Gangwon m silver medal over 1000 meters and the gold medal on the 500th In February 2017 she won the gold medal at the Winter Asian Games in Obihiro over 500 m and over 1000 m. In the following season she won seven times over 500 m and three times over 1000 m and thus reached sixth place in the World Cup over 1000 m, fourth place in the World Cup over 500 m and third place in the overall World Cup. At the season highlight, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , she won the gold medal over 500 m and the silver medal over 1000 m.

In the 2018/19 season, Kodaira won eight World Cup victories over 500 m and one over 1000 m. In addition, she was twice third over 1000 m and once over 1000 m and second in the team sprint. She took second place in the overall world cup over 500 m and third place in the overall world cup over 1000 m. At the 2019 World Speed Skating Championships in Inzell , she won the bronze medal over 1000 m and the silver medal over 500 m. At the end of February 2019, she won the gold medal at the Sprint World Championship in Heerenveen .

Kodaira is Japanese champion over 2 × 500 m (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016), over 500 m (2017, 2018, 2019), over 1000 m (2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017), over 1500 m (2010, 2012, 2013) and in the sprint all-around (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)

Personal bests

500 m 36.39 sec. (installed on March 16, 2019 in Calgary)
1000 m 1: 11.77 min. (installed on March 9, 2019 in Salt Lake City)
1500 m 1: 52.82 min. (installed on February 16, 2020 in Salt Lake City)
3000 m 4: 21.53 min. (installed on October 22, 2010 in Nagano)

Participation in World Championships and Olympic Winter Games

Olympic games

2010 Vancouver : 2nd place team pursuit, 5th place 1000 m, 5th place 1500 m, 12th place 500 m
2014 Sochi : 5th place 500 m, 13th place 1000 m
2018 Pyeongchang : 1st place 500 m, 2nd place 1000 m, 6th place 1500 m

Individual distance world championships

2007 Salt Lake City : 13th place 1000 m
2008 Nagano : 12th place 1000 m
2011 Inzell : 4th place team pursuit, 8th place 2 × 500 m, 16th place 1000 m
2012 Heerenveen : 12th place 1000 m, 18th place 2 × 500 m
2013 Sochi : 6th place 2 × 500 m, 16th place 1000 m
2015 Heerenveen : 3rd place 2 × 500 m, 11th place 1000 m
2016 Kolomna : 6th place 2 × 500 m
2017 Gangwon : 1st place 500 m, 2nd place 1000 m
2019 Inzell : 2nd place 500 m, 3rd place 1000 m
2020 Salt Lake City : 1st place 500 m, 6th place 1000 m, 9th place 1500 m

Sprint World Championships

2010 Obihiro : 4th place sprint all-around
2011 Heerenveen : 5th place sprint all-around
2012 Calgary : 13th place sprint all-around
2013 Salt Lake City : 22nd place sprint all-around
2014 Nagano : 5th place sprint all-around
2016 Seoul : 8th place sprint all-around competition
2017 Calgary : 1st place sprint all-around
2019 Heerenveen : 1st place sprint all-around
2020 Hamar : 2nd place sprint all-around

World Cup victories

World Cup victories in individual

No.	date	place	discipline
1.	November 21, 2014	Korea South Seoul	500 m
2.	November 11, 2016	China People's Republic Harbin	500 m
3.	November 13, 2016	China People's Republic Harbin	500 m
4th	20th November 2016	Japan Nagano	500 m
5.	December 9, 2016	Netherlands Heerenveen	500 m
6th	January 27, 2017	Germany Dresden	500 m
7th	January 28, 2017	Germany Dresden	500 m
8th.	March 11, 2017	Norway Stavanger	500 m
9.	March 12, 2017	Norway Stavanger	500 m
10.	November 10, 2017	Netherlands Heerenveen	500 m
11.	November 11, 2017	Netherlands Heerenveen	500 m
12.	November 12, 2017	Netherlands Heerenveen	1000 m
13.	17th November 2017	Norway Stavanger	500 m
14th	17th November 2017	Norway Stavanger	1000 m
15th	18th November 2017	Norway Stavanger	500 m
16.	3rd December 2017	Canada Calgary	500 m
17th	December 8, 2017	United States Salt Lake City	500 m
18th	December 9, 2017	United States Salt Lake City	500 m
19th	December 10, 2017	United States Salt Lake City	1000 m
20th	16th November 2018	Japan Obihiro	500 m
21st	17th November 2018	Japan Obihiro	500 m
22nd	23rd November 2018	Japan Tomakomai	500 m
23.	November 24, 2018	Japan Tomakomai	500 m
24.	November 25, 2018	Japan Tomakomai	1000 m
25th	15th December 2018	Netherlands Heerenveen	500 m
26th	2nd February 2019	Norway Hamar	500 m
27.	March 9, 2019	United States Salt Lake City	500 m
28.	March 10, 2019	United States Salt Lake City	500 m
29	23rd November 2019	Poland Tomaszów Mazowiecki	500 m
30th	December 13, 2019	Japan Nagano	500 m
31.	February 7, 2020	Canada Calgary	1000 m
32.	February 8, 2020	Canada Calgary	500 m