Figure Skating

Ice Dancing Duo of Daisuke Takahashi, Kana Muramoto Announces Retirement

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Daisuke Takahashi, right, and Kana Muramoto perform their free program in ice dancing at the ISU World Team Trophy in Tokyo in April.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:54 JST, May 1, 2023

The figure skating ice dance team of Daisuke Takahashi and Kana Muramoto, winners at last year’s All-Japan Figure Skating Championships, announced their retirement from competition on Monday.

“We decided to retire from competition after this season,” Takahashi said in a video posted on their joint Instagram account.

The pair, affectionately known as “Kanadai” as an amalgamation of their first names, competed for the last time at the ISU World Team Trophy in Tokyo last month, where they helped Japan to a third-place finish.

The 37-year-old Takahashi turned to ice dancing following a historic career as a singles skater. He won a bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, making him Japan’s first-ever male Olympic figure skating medalist, and later that year became the nation’s first-ever world champion. He then added the gold at the 2012 Grand Prix Finals, again a first for Japan.

Takahashi retired in 2014, but returned to the ice in 2018. From 2020, he switched to ice dancing and partnered with Muramoto, now 30, who had represented Japan in the event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics with Chris Reed.