Japan’s Ace Speed Skater Takagi Miho Chases Elusive 1,500-Meter Gold at Milano Cortina 2026

Olympic Medals and World Records to Her Name

Takagi Miho, a 31-year-old veteran in the world of competitive speed skating, has won a total of seven medals across the three Olympic Games she has competed in so far—Vancouver in 2010, Pyeongchang in 2018, and Beijing in 2022. These include a gold in the women’s 1,000 meters and another in women’s team pursuit, and are the highest medal count by any Japanese woman in either the Summer or Winter Olympics.

At Milano Cortina 2026, she will compete for Japan in three events: the 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters, and team pursuit. She has also been selected as a reserve for the 500 meters, meaning she could skate in up to four events. If Takagi, who collected multiple medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang and 2022 Beijing Olympics, makes it to the podium in all three of her events, she would become the first Japanese woman to reach double-digit Olympic medals.

However, medal counts are not Takagi’s true focus. One “final piece” remains unfulfilled in her career—the Olympic gold in the 1,500 meters, an event in which she holds the women’s world record of 1:49.83. She has won multiple World Cup competitions, taking the overall season title for this event a total of six times, but the Olympic gold has eluded her.

Takagi has raced the 1,500 meters at three Olympic Games and stood on the podium at both Pyeongchang and Beijing, each time settling for silver. “My biggest target this time is the 1,500,” she says. “I want to give everything I have at the Olympics and finally win the gold.”

With that aim in sight, Japan’s ace is moving at full speed toward her goal.

Takagi was only in ninth grade when she first competed at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. In speed skating, which demands both refined technique and physical strength, athletes usually only reach the Olympics in their twenties. The arrival of a 15-year-old with relaxed skating technique, impressive cornering skills, and stamina that could sustain lap times to the very end electrified Japan’s skating world.

Still, she was far from a top contender in the Vancouver Olympics, and she learned just how fierce the competition could be. She later experienced the disappointment of failing to qualify for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Climbing back from that low point helped shape Takagi into the once-in-a-generation athlete she is today.

In the 2017–18 season, she racked up World Cup victories, and at Pyeongchang she won three medals: gold in the team pursuit, silver in the 1,500 meters, and bronze in the 1,000 meters. She went on to build on that success, claiming titles at the World Allround Speed Skating Championships for middle and long distances, the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships for short distance, and the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships.

She was also in excellent form during the 2021–22 season. At the Beijing Olympics, she competed in five events—four individual races and one team event—winning her first individual Olympic gold in the 1,000 meters and collecting a total of four medals, an outstanding achievement.

An Olympic victory in the 1,500 meters, however, once again remained out of reach.

A New Approach with a Dutch Coach

After the Beijing games, Takagi took on a new challenge in pursuit of her goal for Milano Cortina. She left the Japan Skating Federation’s national team, which she had been part of since 2014, and formed “Team Gold” with Dutch coach Johan de Wit. The team expanded in 2023 with the addition of Satō Ayano, Takagi’s teammate in two Olympic team pursuits, and two Chinese skaters, and again in 2024 with men’s middle-distance skater Nonomura Taiyō. Within this multinational team, the skaters motivate each other to continue improving.

Takagi Miho (left) with her coach, Johan de Wit, at M-Wave in Nagano, February 28, 2025. (© Jiji)

Takagi feels that her new setup is working in her favor. “I get high-quality training at Team Gold, and because we have many different athletes, I can gain a range of perspectives. That also helps me better understand my strengths.”

In 2023, she changed her skate blades from the Viking Nagano Sprint, which she had been using since junior high school, to the Viking Icon, released after the Pyeongchang Olympics and now widely used by middle- and long-distance skaters. Her goal, of course, was to cut time in the 1,500 meters. For Takagi, whose sensations are exceptionally precise and who approaches racing by making minute adjustments to her form, the equipment change turned out to be a bigger adventure than expected.

In the end, she went back this season to the Nagano Sprint. What mattered, though, was that she had explored new territory, a spirit that is one of Takagi’s defining strengths.

Preparing for the Games with Self Reflection

The 1,500 meters is a special event for Takagi. According to her, if the 1,000 meters is about sheer speed from the gun, the 1,500 meters is a race where power alone is not enough to win. “If I’m not competitive in this race, it just isn’t fun,” she says of the 1,500 meters, which demands speed, stamina, technique, and strategy.

With that in mind, in last season’s final event, the World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships in Norway in March 2025, she chose an approach of pushing hard from the first half. “It’s because I thought that, with my strength, going hard from the start was the only way I had a chance to win,” she explains.

Part of the reason for this strategy came from her realistic self-assessment that she would not have enough strength to hold on in a late-race battle. In the end, she finished fourth. Fatigue from successive races was a factor, but the results were very unsatisfactory for her.

Her worries and uncertainties have followed her into this Olympic season. Unlike the stretch before Beijing, when victories came one after another, the path ahead no longer appears so clear. Still, her resolve is strong. “I keep moving forward,” she says, “always asking myself what the best choice is.”

“Like I’ve Never Raced Before”

She has already claimed Olympic gold in the 1,000 meters and reached the top in the team pursuit as well, another event where she has achieved a world record. The remaining piece is a gold medal in the 1,500 meters.

“It’s not just a goal because I think it might be attainable. Winning the 1,500 meters has been important to me for a long time. I’m determined not to lose in that event more than any other.”

She isn’t chasing it because she declared that it’s her goal. She declared that it’s her goal because it’s always been her goal. Her commitment to the 1,500 runs deep.

In this season, she won the 1,500 meters at the fourth World Cup meet. With a second-place finish at the fifth meet, on January 23, 2026, she wrapped up her fifth consecutive season championship in World Cup 1,500-meter competition, and her sixth overall. Meanwhile, her biggest presumed rival, Joy Beune from the Netherlands, failed to make her country’s Olympic team, bringing Takagi closer to the top. Still, she is tightening her focus once again as the Games approach. “I’m going to race the 1,500 meters at Milano like I never have before.” She is giving her all for this single aim.

Short-Distance Skaters Eyeing Medals

Takagi isn’t the only Japanese speed skater who is a medal contender. Yoshida Yukino, a 22-year-old rising star in women’s short-distance skating, has already claimed a World Cup win in the 500 meters. Her medal prospects in that event are high, and she also has the potential to challenge Takagi for gold in the 1,000 meters.

Speed skaters selected to represent Japan in Milano Cortina 2026, with Takagi Miho in the center of the front row. M-Wave, Nagano, December 28, 2025. (© Jiji)

Two Japanese skaters have been training to win the gold for the men’s 500 meters: Morishige Wataru, who won bronze at the Beijing Olympics, and Shinhama Tatsuya, Japan’s national record holder in the event. Both of these competitors hail from Betsukai, Hokkaidō. Could Milano Cortina offer the rare sight of two skaters from one town standing together on the Olympic podium?

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Takagi Miho competes in the women’s 1,500 meters at the Japan Single Distances Championships on October 26, 2025, at M-Wave in Nagano. © Jiji.)