Juko Kawaguti

Juko Kawaguti
Juko Kawaguti and Alexander Smirnow at the 2010 European Championships
nation	Japan United States Russia
birthday	November 20, 1981
place of birth	Funabashi, Japan
size	157 cm
Weight	38 kg
Career
discipline	Pair skating
Partner	Alexander Smirnov
Former partner	Alexander Markunzow, Devin Patrick
society	Jubilejni Sports Club
Trainer	Tamara Moskwina, Nikolai Velikow, Igor Moskvin
choreographer	Tatjana Drutschinina, Peter Tschernyshev
status	active
Medal table
World Cup medals 0 × 0 × 2 × EM medals 2 × 2 × 1 ×
World figure skating championships bronze Los Angeles 2009 Couples bronze Turin 2010 Couples  European figure skating championships bronze Zagreb 2008 Couples silver Helsinki 2009 Couples gold Tallinn 2010 Couples silver Bern 2011 Couples gold Stockholm 2015 Couples
Personal best
Total points 214.05 Mordovian Ornament 2015  Freestyle 140.00 Skate America 2014  Short program 76.02 Mordovian Ornament 2015
Placements in the figure skating Grand Prix
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Grand Prix Final 0 0 1  Grand Prix competitions 6th 6th 3
last change: November 1st, 2015

Juko Kawaguti ( Russian Юко Кавагути Juko Kawaguti ; Japanese 川口 悠子 , Kawaguchi Yūko ; born November 20, 1981 in Funabashi , Chiba Prefecture , Honshū ) is a Russian figure skater of Japanese origin who competed in pair skating for Japan and the USA and currently for Russia starts.

biography

Kawaguti began figure skating in 1986 , initially as a single skater for Japan. She later became a pair skater and started with Alexander Markunzow for Japan until 2003 , with whom she won silver at the Junior World Championships in 2001. After separating from Markunzow, she ran with Devin Patrick and took part in the US championships with him .

She has lived in Russia since 2002 and is studying international relations there .

Since spring 2006 she starts with Alexander Smirnow and represents Russia. The couple are trained by Tamara Moskwina . You start for the Jubilejni Sports Club and train in the Jubileiny Sports Complex in Saint Petersburg. Due to an injury to Kawaguchi, they missed both the Russian championships and the European championships. At the 2007 World Cup , they finished ninth, making them the best Russian couple ahead of the Russian champions of that year, Marija Muchortowa and Maxim Trankow .

The following season they finished third at Skate Canada and the Cup of Russia and took part in a Grand Prix final for the first time, where they finished fifth. In 2008 Kawaguchi and Smirnow were able to win the Russian championships for the first time. At the European Championships they finished fourth after the short program, but were able to overtake the Ukrainians in front of them in the freestyle and in the end won the bronze medal behind the defending champions Aljona Savtschenko / Robin Szolkowy and their compatriots Muchortowa / Trankow, who they won in the Russian championships had still beaten. At the World Cup , they surprisingly finished fourth.

At the beginning of the 2008/09 season they won Skate Canada and took second place in the Cup of Russia behind Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao , where they won the freestyle against the Chinese duo. Shortly before the Russian championships, which the couple later won, Kawaguchi received Russian citizenship, so that they were now also eligible to start at the Olympic Games , and she changed her name to Kawaguti . At the European Championships this season they came second and at the World Championships they won their first World Championship medal with bronze.

At the European Championships 2010 in Tallinn , Smirnow and Kawaguti were European champions for the first time, ahead of the three-time European champions Savchenko / Szolkowy. They finished their first Olympic Games a little later in Vancouver in fourth place. At the world championship they defended their bronze medal.

In the post-Olympic year they won the silver medal at the 2011 European Championships behind their strongest competitors Savchenko and Szolkowy. They managed to just win the freestyle. At the World Cup in Moscow , after making mistakes, it was only enough to achieve a disappointing fourth place. They were almost 25 points behind their compatriots Tatiana Wolossoshar and Maxim Trankow , to whom they were already defeated at the Russian championships.

Kawaguti and Smirnow started the 2011/12 season with victories at the NHK Trophy and the Cup of China . At the Grand Prix final they won their first medal in this competition with bronze. They did not take part in the Russian championships so that Smirnov could heal a knee injury. On January 4th, however, his appendix and a hernia had to be removed in an emergency operation . For this reason, Kawaguti and Smirnow could not take part in the European Championship. At the World Championships , they finished seventh, mainly due to incorrect and unsuccessful lifts.

In 2016, Kawaguti tore his Achilles tendon while warming up.

Results

Pair skating

(with Alexander Smirnow for Russia)

Championship / year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
winter Olympics				4th
World championships	9.	4th	3.	3.	4th	7th	6th	-	5.
European championships		3.	2.	1.	2.		5.	-	1.
Russian championships		1.	1.	1.	2.		2.		3.
-
Grand Prix competition / season	06/07	07/08	08/09	09/10	10/11	11/12	12/13	13/14	14/15
Grand Prix Final		5.	5.	5.		3.	6th		6th
Skate America									1.
Skate Canada		3.	1.		Z
Cup of China						1.	2.
Cup of Russia	3.	3.	2.	2.	1.	2.
Eric Bompard Trophy							1.
NHK Trophy				2.		1.			2

(with Devin Patrick for the USA and Japan)

Competition / season	2004/05	2005/06
American championships		15th
Japanese championships	1.

(with Alexander Markunzow for Japan)

Competition / year	2001	2002	2003
World championships	15th	13.	14th
Junior World Championships	2.
Japanese championships	1.	1.	1.

Z = withdrawn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klaus-Reinhold Kany: Deserved victory for Volosozhar / Trankov . In: pirouette . Volume 49, No. 2, 2016, p. 21.

Web links

Commons : Juko Kawaguti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kawaguti and Smirnow in the database of the International Skating Union (English)
• Juko Kawaguti in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )