is a retired Japanese figure skater. She is the 2006 Olympic champion and the 2004 World champion. Arakawa is the first Japanese skater to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating and the second Japanese skater to win any Olympic medal in figure skating, after Midori Ito, who won silver in 1992. She is also the second Japanese woman to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, following skier Tae Satoya. She was the only Japanese medalist at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Arakawa retired from competitive skating following her Olympic win and began skating professionally in ice shows and exhibitions. She also works as a skating sportscaster for Japanese television.

Personal life

Arakawa was born in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Sendai and its suburbs. She is the only child of Koichi and Sachi Arakawa and was named Shizuka after Shizuka Gozen.

In March 2000, Arakawa enrolled at Waseda University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in social sciences in 2004, while still competing as a skater. She won the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships days after completing her graduation examinations at Waseda University. and EXILE, and likes shopping, driving, swimming, golf and practicing marine sports. Arakawa cites gourmet cooking as one of her hobbies. She collects beanie babies, has a pet shih tzu (named Charo) and hamster (named Juntoki). She also has four dogs, named Choco, Tiramisu, Aroma and Rosa.

Arakawa was married on December 29, 2013, her 32nd birthday. Further details were not made public.

On April 16, 2014, Arakawa announced that she was pregnant and expecting her first child. On November 6, 2014, she gave birth to her daughter. On May 23, 2018, it was announced that she had given birth again to her son.

Career

Early career

When Arakawa was 5 years old,

Senior career

thumb|left|Arakawa performs a [[Camel spin|donut spin at the 2003 Skate Canada International in her free skate to Violin Fantasy on the opera Turandot.]]

Arakawa was the senior national Japanese champion in both 1998 and 1999. She made her Olympic debut when she represented Japan in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano at age 16. The Emperor and Empress of Japan attended the ladies' free skate event. She placed 13th at the Nagano Olympics. At that time, she was ranked number 2 in Japan. In 2002, Arakawa finished second at Japan's national championships and, as a result, was not named to the Japanese 2002 Winter Olympics team.

During the 2002–2003 skating season, Arakawa won the Asian Winter Games and the Winter Universiade. She earned her second consecutive silver medal at the Four Continents Championships. She took the bronze at the NHK Trophy, and placed fifth at the Cup of Russia. She qualified for the ISU Grand Prix Final, where she finished fourth. She later placed third at the Japanese Nationals, marking her fifth medal from this meet, with two golds and two silvers from previous seasons.

In 2004, she won the World Championships in Dortmund, Germany, defeating Americans Sasha Cohen and Michelle Kwan, after landing seven clean triple jumps. She was the third Japanese woman to win this title after Midori Ito who won in 1989 and Yuka Sato in 1994. Arakawa had planned to retire after the 2004 World Championships, but her victory there convinced her to change her plans.

In 2005, Arakawa won the NHK Trophy and came in second place at the Grand Prix Finals. Although she had planned two triple-triple combinations for the free skate, she did not perform them, doing instead a triple Lutz-double loop and a triple Salchow-double toe loop combinations. Arakawa earned a total combined score of 191.34 points, almost eight points ahead of the second-place Cohen (183.36). Like Cohen, Slutskaya made mistakes in her long program, and ended up taking bronze, leaving Arakawa as the gold medal winner, which was also Japan's only medal of the 2006 games. starring Olympic bronze medalist Daisuke Takahashi, as well as in Hyoen<nowiki/>'s spin-off Luxe (2021).

On April 18, 2018, Arakawa was elected to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Acting<br/>

In 2006, Arakawa appeared in a Japanese TV drama, Shichinin no onna bengoshi (7 female lawyers), presented by Asahi TV. She played the role of a cool public prosecutor, Yayoi Shimasaki, in the 8th episode.

Skating event commentator and main anchor<br/>

Arashi's Sho Sakurai was the special newscaster for the 2010 Winter Olympics news coverage on NTV, with Arakawa as the main newscaster. They repeated for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Other<br/>

In October 2024 she joined forces with Daisuke Takahashi, Kana Muramoto, Takahito Mura, Kazuki Tomono, Keiji Tanaka, Yuna Aoki, Kosho Oshima, Yuto Kishina and Rena Uezono to launch the members-only official fan community F-Ske on the platform FANICON.

Signature moves

thumb|right|Arakawa performs her signature layback [[Ina Bauer (element)|Ina Bauer in her exhibition to You Raise Me Up by Celtic Woman at the 2006 Olympics.]]

Arakawa is known for her jumping ability, particularly her difficult triple-triple combinations, like the triple Salchow-triple toe and the triple Lutz-triple toe, sometimes combined with a double loop. She has executed triple-triple-triple combination jumps in practice, the most of which have been the triple Salchow-triple toe-triple loop combination. She has also executed the triple Lutz-triple loop combination in practice. According to figure skating historian James R. Hines, Arakawa was "remembered for her artistry".

Her trademark move is the Ina Bauer with a full backbend.

Japanese Olympic Committee

  • JOC Sports Award- Special Achievement Award (2002), Best Award (2005)

Municipality

  • Miyagi "Citizens Award of Honor" (2006)

World Figure Skating Hall of Fame

  • Class of 2018 inductee
  • Shizuka-Arakawa.com
  • International Skating Center of Connecticut in Simsbury
  • Japan Skates – Website dedicated to the Japanese ladies figure skating team featuring news, rare photos and exclusive interviews