Daisuke Takahashi

For the footballer, see Daisuke Takahashi (footballer).

Daisuke Takahashi
Takahashi in 2008.
Full name	Daisuke Takahashi
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Japan
Coach	Utako Nagamitsu
Skating club	Kansai University SC

Olympic medal record
Men's figure skating
Representing Japan
	2010 Vancouver	Singles

Daisuke Takahashi (髙橋 大輔, Takahashi Daisuke) (born March 16, 1986 in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese figure skater. Takahashi received the bronze medal in figure skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Men's singles. He is a four-time (2006-2008, 2010) Japanese national champion, the 2008 Four Continents Champion, and the 2007 World silver medalist. He represented Japan at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Career

Early career

Takahashi began figure skating when he was 8 years old. When a skating rink was built near his house, he went with his mother to watch the skaters at the rink, and afterwards, enrolled in the figure skating club. His mother intended for him enroll in the ice hockey club, but he didn't like the protective gear of ice hockey, so he enrolled in the figure skating club, instead.

Takahashi had a successful junior career, winning the Junior World Figure Skating Championships in 2002, in his first, and only, appearance at that competition. Takahashi is the first Japanese man to have won the World Junior Championships.

Senior career

For the following 2002-2003 season, Takahashi turned senior, and his ascent slowed. He struggled with consistency during those first few years of his senior career. He went into the 2005 World Figure Skating Championships as the reigning Four Continents bronze medalist, but he was the second of two Japanese men on the World team, after Takeshi Honda. However, when Honda was forced to withdraw due to injury, it fell on Takahashi to qualify spots for Japan at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Takahashi placed 15th, qualifying only one spot for the Japanese men.

2005–2006 season

In the 2005–2006 season, Nobunari Oda emerged as a challenger for the Olympic spot. Oda and Takahashi both had very good Grand Prix seasons. At the 2005–2006 Japanese nationals, Oda was declared the winner, and, thus, seemed to have qualified for the one Olympic slot, but his gold medal was quickly taken back, when an error was found in the way scores were tallied in the computer system at the event, and Takahashi was awarded the gold. The Japanese Skating Federation split the international assignments, and gave Takahashi a spot to the Olympics, and Oda a spot to Worlds. At the 2006 Olympics, Takahashi was in a position to medal after the short program, but had had a poor long program and placed 8th overall.

2006–2007 season

In the 2006–2007 competitive season, Takahashi won a silver medal at 2006 Skate Canada International, then gold at the 2006 NHK Trophy. He qualified for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final and placed second, although he was ill. He won the Japanese National title for the second year in a row, and then went on to the Winter Universiade in Torino, Italy which he won as well. At the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships he skated the performance of his life in his home country, and ended up winning the silver medal, and trailing Brian Joubert narrowly. This was the first silver medal for Japan in the men's event at Worlds.

Following that season, Takahashi was ranked as first in the World by the ISU. However, over the summer, the ISU tweaked their scoring criteria. Takahashi had been placed on top, just ahead of Brian Joubert, in part due to Takahashi's victory at the Winter Universiade, a competition for which Brian Joubert was not eligible, as Joubert was not a university student. The ISU determined that the results of the Winter Universiade couldn't be used to calculate world ranking, and Takahashi's ranking fell from first to second place.

2007-2008 season

In the 2007–2008 season, he won his Grand Prix Events and placed 2nd in The Grand Prix Final behind Stephane Lambiel. A few weeks later, he won his third Japanese Championship and was selected for the 2008 Four Continents Championships and the 2008 World Championships. Takahashi won the Four Continents, scoring a new record in the free skate (175.84) and in the total score (264.41) under the ISU Judging System. He was considered a favorite heading into the 2008 World Championships but finished off the podium after a disappointing free skate in which he fell on his second quad toe attempt, then stumbled on a triple Axel and loop, and, finally, performed an extra combination, an invalid element, which did not count towards his points total.

2008-2009 season

Takahashi was originally assigned to the 2008 Cup of China and the 2008 NHK Trophy for the 2008-2009 Grand Prix season. He withdrew from the Cup of China due to a knee injury suffered in practice. It was later reported that Takahashi would undergo surgery to repair ligament damage and his right miniscus and would miss the entire 2008-2009 season.

2009-2010 season

After recovering from the surgery and getting back training healthily, Takahashi was assigned to compete in the 2009 Skate Canada International and in the 2009 NHK Trophy the 2009-2010 season. He placed second at the 2009 Skate Canada and fourth at the 2009 NHK Trophy and those placement qualified him to the 2009-2010 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final. At the 2009-2010 Grand Prix Final, he lead after the short program with a new personal best of 89.95, but was fifth in the free skate and overall.

He won his fourth national championship at the 2009-2010 Japanese National Championhips and earned qualifications to compete in the 2010 Winter Olympics and in the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships. On Thursday, February 18th, Takahashi won the bronze medal with a score of 247.43. It is the first Olympic medal to be won by Japan in Men's Figure Skating.

Coaching change

Takahashi is a student at Kansai University, along with Nobunari Oda. For several years, he split his time between Hackensack, New Jersey, where he trained under coach Nikolai Morozov, and Osaka, Japan, where he trains under coach Utako Nagamitsu. In May 2008, Takahashi announced that he would be parting ways with Morozov.

In May 2008, Nikolai Morozov explained the split by stating that he could no longer coach Takahashi due to problems with Takahashi's new agent.

Programs

Takahashi at the 2006 Skate Canada International.

Season	Short Program	Free skating	Exhibition
2009-2010	Eye by COBA	La Strada by Nino Rota	Luv Letter DJ Okawari
2008-2009	Did not compete this season	Did not compete this season	Did not compete this season
2007-2008	Swan Lake Hip Hop version Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky remix	Romeo and Juliet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	Bachelorette by Björk
2006-2007	Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	The Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack by Andrew Lloyd Webber	El Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge! by Mariano Mores performed by Ewan McGregor
2005-2006	El Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge! by Mariano Mores	Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff	Nocturne by Secret Garden
2004-2005	Nyah from Mission: Impossible II by Hans Zimmer Sabre Dance from Gayane by Aram Khachaturian	Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo	Nocturne by Secret Garden
2003-2004	Nyah from Mission: Impossible II by Hans Zimmer	Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Variation on a Theme of Niccolò Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff	Desert Rose by Sting
2002-2003	Symphony No. 4 by Philip Glass	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Soundtrack by John Williams	What a Wonderful World by Joey Ramone

Competitive highlights

Takahashi (center) with other medalists at the 2007 NHK Trophy podium.

Post-2004

Event	2004–2005	2005–2006	2006–2007	2007–2008	2009-2010
Winter Olympic Games		8th			3rd
World Championships	15th		2nd	4th
Four Continents Championships	3rd			1st
Japanese Championships	6th	1st	1st	1st	1st
Grand Prix Final		3rd	2nd	2nd	5th
NHK Trophy		3rd	1st	1st	4th
Skate America		1st		1st
Skate Canada International			2nd		2nd
Trophee Eric Bompard	11th
Finlandia Trophy					1st
Winter Universiade	1st		1st

• WD = Withdrew
• Takahashi did not compete in the 2008–2009 season.

Pre-2004

Event	1999–2000	2000–2001	2001–2002	2002–2003	2003–2004
World Championships					11th
Four Continents Championships				13th	6th
World Junior Championships			1st
Japanese Championships			5th	4th	3rd
Japanese Junior Championships	3rd	4th	1st
NHK Trophy				8th
Skate Canada International					7th
Trophee Eric Bompard					5th
ISU Junior Grand Prix Final			4th
Junior Grand Prix, Japan			1st
Junior Grand Prix, Bulgaria			2nd
Junior Grand Prix, Ukraine		8th
Junior Grand Prix, China		9th

External links

• Daisuke Takahashi at the International Skating Union