Yūsuke Minato

Yūsuke Minato
nation	Japan
birthday	March 15, 1985
size	183 cm
Weight	75 kg
job	employee
Career
society	Tokyo Biso Group Ski Team
status	active
Medal table
World Cup medals 1 × 0 × 0 × Universiade medals 1 × 1 × 1 ×
Nordic World Ski Championships gold 2009 Liberec team  Winter Universiade gold 2007 Pragelato sprint silver 2007 Pragelato Gundersen bronze 2007 Pragelato team
Placements in the World Cup
Debut in the World Cup	December 6, 2002
Overall World Cup	36th ( 2008/09 )
last change: August 20, 2019

Yūsuke Minato ( Japanese 湊 祐 介 , Minato Yūsuke , born March 15, 1985 in Kita-Akita ) is a Japanese Nordic combined athlete .

Minato began his international career in 2002 with the start at the Junior World Championships in Schonach , where he reached 21st place in Gundersen and 6th place with the team. After the Junior World Championships, Minato started jumping in the Nordic Combined B World Cup. After good results there he made his debut in the Nordic Combined World Cup on December 6, 2002 in Trondheim . At the Junior World Championships in 2003 in Sollefteå , he achieved a top 10 placement with 10th place in Gundersen. In the team competition he and his teammates came in 8th place. In the sprint he reached place 27. A year later at the Junior World Championships in Stryn he was also able to improve his performance in the sprint and was there, as in the Gundersen competition, 14th. In the team mass start he reached eleventh place with the Japanese relay. At his last Junior World Championships in 2005 in Rovaniemi , Finland , he was eighth with the Japanese relay, while he was 24th in the sprint and 35th in the Gundersen competition. At the Winter Universiade 2005 in Innsbruck and Seefeld in Tirol , he finished fifth in the sprint and twelfth in the Gundersen competition.

At the Winter Universiade 2007 in Pragelato , Minato won the gold medal in the sprint, the silver medal in the Gundersen and bronze with the team. He was then nominated for the 2007 World Championships in his native Sapporo and took 40th place in the Gundersen competition. In February 2008 he moved permanently to the squad for the World Cup and achieved there in the 2008/09 season with 36th place in the overall standings, his best result so far. At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Liberec , Czech Republic , he won the gold medal in the team competition together with Taihei Katō , Akito Watabe and Norihito Kobayashi . In the two Gundersen competitions he was sixth (normal hill) and ninth (large hill), while he finished 15th in the mass start race. At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver , Minato reached 26th place in the individual on the large hill.

At the 2011 World Championships in Oslo , Norway , he was fifth on the large hill and sixth on the normal hill with the Japanese team. In the two Gundersen competitions he was 28th (large hill) and 33rd (normal hill). His last World Cup appearance so far was at the 2013 World Championships in Fiemme Valley , Italy , when he missed bronze in the team competition on the normal hill just 1.5 seconds behind the US team. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , Russia , he was only used in the team competition and reached fifth place with his teammates. He was last used in the World Cup on January 24, 2015 in his native Sapporo when he finished 29th. From time to time he still takes part in FIS competitions in Japan. He last achieved a podium finish in March 2019 with a second place.

Web links

• Yūsuke Minato in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Yūsuke Minato in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )