Japan’s Yuna Nagaoka & Sumitada Moriguchi teamed up only two and a half years ago but they already made history: At the ISU Skate to Milan Olympic Qualifier in Beijing, the duo from Kyoto secured a second quota place for a Japanese pair. For the first time ever, Japan will be represented with two entries in the Pairs event at the Olympic Winter Games. 

“At this tense (qualifying) competition I think we were very nervous because we had to fight against the pressure on our shoulders,” Moriguchi, 23, noted. “But now I can say that we finally get rid of the regrets from the last World Championship and successfully got the ticket to the Olympic Games.”

Nagaoka & Moriguchi perform during ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2025 in Boston, USA © ISU

At the ISU World Championships 2025 in Boston (USA), Nagaoka & Moriguchi came 22^nd, thus missing out on the opportunity to earn the second spot for their country directly. Their teammates Riku Miura & Ryuichi Kihara won the World title and kept the chance for a second quota place that had to be secured in Beijing in September. “From there (World Championships) until now, the training has been hard with a lot of pressure,” Moriguchi recalled.

Using the second chance

Nagaoka & Moriguchi used their second chance and got the spot by taking the bronze medal. Eleven Pairs competed for just three spots and the Japanese came from fourth place after the Short Program.

“We were so nervous because we needed to be at least to be in third place, but the Short Program was not going well,” Nagaoka, 20, noted. “We needed to have the right mindset, so we tried to think positive. When we realized that we got the quota place, we were just happy to compete at the Olympic Games,” she added. "Of course we were nervous, but we need to trust ourselves,” Moriguchi agreed. “Yuna was very worried about the throw jumps, but just I said ‘trust yourself and trust ourselves, and we can do it’, and we did it.”

Japan has not yet nominated their Figure Skating team for MilanoCortina 2026 but chances are very good that Nagaoka/Moriguchi will get the second spot to join Miura/Kihara in Italy as the other Pair Skating couples in Japan are currently not at the same level. For Japan, having two Pair Skating teams at the Olympic Games, is a big step forward in the development of the discipline. 

Making a change to move forward

Nagaoka & Moriguchi have been constantly improving. They include a side by side triple loop into their programs which is rare in Pair Skating. Following the past season, the Japanese team decided to change coaches and started to work with Dmitri Savin, the head coach of many top teams including ISU European Champions and World silver medalists Minerva Hase & Nikita Volodin (GER). “We saw that Mr. Savin’s pairs are very consistent in competition and are having good results,” Moriguchi said about the coaching change. “We also know that Mr. Savin is very good at online coaching.” 

Nagaoka & Moriguchi perform during the ISU Skate to Milan Olympic Qualifier 2025 in Beijing, China © ISU

Nagaoka & Moriguchi are based in Kyoto in Japan where they don’t have a coach specialized in Pair Skating. They had been partially training in Canada with Bruno Marcotte and Brian Shales before. Now they work online with Savin and participated in his training camps for example in the Netherlands and in Germany over the summer. 

“It is a very good atmosphere with all the other pairs and Mr. Savin is a great coach and a very nice person,” Moriguchi pointed out. 

Together with their new team, Nagaoka & Moriguchi are looking forward to further growth and to continue to push Pair Skating in Japan.