Emi Hirai ( ja, 平井絵己; born October 14, 1986) is a Japanese former

ice dancer Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...

. With skating partner

Marien de la Asuncion Marien de La Asuncion (born 6 February 1989) is a French retired ice dancer who competes for Japan with skating partner Emi Hirai. Together, they are four-time Japanese national silver medalists and have competed at four Four Continents Champio ...

, she is a four-time Japanese national silver medalist and has competed at four

Four Continents Championships The Four Continents Figure Skating Championships (4CC) is an annual figure skating competition. The International Skating Union established it in 1999 to provide skaters representing non-African and non-European countries with a similar competit ...

Personal life

Hirai was born on October 14, 1986, in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan. She is a graduate of

Kansai University , abbreviated as or , is a private non-sectarian and coeducational university with its main campus in Suita, Osaka, Japan and two sub-campuses in Sakai and Takatsuki, Osaka. Founded as Kansai Law School in 1886, It has been recognized as one o ...

Career

Hirai began skating in 1995. Following a partnership with Ayato Yuzawa in the 2008–09 season, she competed with Taiyo Mizutani in 2009–10 and 2010–11. Hirai teamed up with French ice dancer

in 2011. They took the silver medal at the 2011–12 Japan Championships. Making their international debut, they placed 14th at the

2012 Nebelhorn Trophy The 2012 Nebelhorn Trophy was held on September 27–29, 2012 at the Eislaufzentrum Oberstdorf. The event is held annually in Oberstdorf, Germany and is named after the Nebelhorn, a nearby mountain. It is one of the first international senior co ...

and 11th at the 2013 Four Continents Championships. Hirai and de la Asuncion have appeared at two Grand Prix events, placing 8th at the

2014 NHK Trophy The 2014 NHK Trophy was the final event of six in the 2014–15 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at the Namihaya Dome in Osaka on November 28–30. Medals were awarded in t ...

and 2015 NHK Trophy. Hirai and de la Asuncion announced their retirement on May 8, 2017, on de la Asuncion's Twitter page.

Programs

With de la Asuncion

Competitive highlights

''GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix''

With de la Asuncion

With Yuzawa and Mizutani

Ladies' Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirai, Emi 1986 births Japanese female ice dancers Living people People from Kurashiki Kansai University alumni Competitors at the 2009 Winter Universiade