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[ODDS and EVENS] Miho Takagi Excelling in the 2024-25 Speed Skating Season

Entering the final weekend of the 2024-25 World Cup season, three-time Olympian Miho Takagi is the points leader in the women's 1,000- and 1,500-meter races.

by
Ed Odeven
February 28, 2025

Miho Takagi is having an exceptional season on the ISU Speed Skating World Cup circuit. Most notably, she's unbeaten in five 1,000-meter events in the 2024-25 campaign, which began in November in Nagano.

Heading into the final meet of the World Cup season, Takagi is also in first place in the standings for both the women's 1,000 and 1,500 meters.

She demands excellence from herself, and anything less than the best frustrates her.

The Hokkaido Prefecture native placed second in the 1,500 in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland, on February 21, for example. For her, it was an unacceptable result in a World Cup meet.

"Not so much with my placing, but my skating was so bad," Takagi told reporters at the arena.

A day later, the three-time Olympian returned to winning form, obliterating the field in the 1,000. Takagi was so strong in her race that her time (1 minute, 14.80 seconds) was more than 1.5 seconds faster than the rest of the field.

There was a mental reset between February 21 and 22 that fueled Takagi's competitive spirit.

Or as she put it: "Yesterday, I was overthinking the race, but I didn‘t really feel the excitement of a World Cup race, I just lacked the passion. You don't need all that thinking in a race, but you do need that passion. I was angry with myself yesterday, but today was different."

Miho Takagi Chasing a Track Record in Season Finale

The 2024-25 World Cup campaign concludes with a meet over the weekend of February 28 to March 2 in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

Takagi, 30, has her sights set on making history at the Thialf ice arena. She announced her goal during the previous week's meet in Poland, stating that she's "going for a track record." Thus, the standard could be eclipsed in the women's 1,000 or 1,500.

Which means she'll need to skate faster than Dutch standout Jutta Leedram did on December 28, 2022, (1:12.80) in Heerenveen in the shorter distance. Or beat the time of Leedram's compatriot Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong in the 1,500 (1:52.95), also on that same December day.

Takagi telegraphed her skill level at the outset of the season, in case anyone had forgotten her place within the sport's pecking order.

In November, in the opening round of the 2024-25 World Cup season, Takagi posted winning times of 1:14.60 in the 1,000 and 1:55.02 in the 1,500 in Nagano.

She followed up those back-to-back wins with nearly identical times in Beijing ― 1:14.62 and 1:55.07.

Takagi extended her season-win streak in the 1,000 to three at the World Cup stop in Calgary, Canada, on January 24, clocking 1:13.10. She followed that headline-grabbing effort with a track-record time of 1:13.56 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 31 at the Pettit National Ice Center.

With this triumph, Takagi also achieved a notable feat in Milwaukee. It was her 35th career World Cup win, breaking the record for Japanese skaters (Hiroyasu Shimizu and Nao Kodaira both won 34 races).

Longtime Coach Shares Insights on Takagi

Takagi's pursuit of excellence as a speed skater and her remarkable consistency this season have produced impressive results.

She is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the 1,000 and was the silver medalist in the 1,500 at the 2022 Beijing Games.

Johan de Wit, Takagi's longtime coach, analyzed the speed skater's overall performance this season in a recent interview with Odds and Evens.

"Miho's results in the 1,000 meters are outstanding," de Wit commented. "Of course, she is the current Olympic champion on this distance and the overall World Cup winner of last season. But this season the gap with the others seems bigger than before.

"We worked on her technique a lot. She is skating better than last [few] years, and the goal was mainly to get faster in the first lap."

Asked about Takagi's motivation, along with her focus and winning drive at this stage of her career, the Dutch coach observed, "It's better than ever."

Expect Miho Takagi's dominance in this World Cup season to be a harbinger of things to come at the ISU World Speed Skating Single Distances Championships. The marquee meet is scheduled for March 13-16 in Hamar, Norway.

Author: Ed Odeven

Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.