is a Japanese professional

rock climber Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

sport climber Sport climbing (or Bolted climbing) is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors (or bolts), permanently fixed into the rock for climber protection, in which a rope that is attached to the climber is clipped into the anchors t ...

and boulderer. She participates in both bouldering and

lead climbing Lead climbing is a climbing style, predominantly used in rock climbing. In a roped party one climber has to take the lead while the other climbers follow. The ''lead climber'' wears a harness attached to a climbing rope, which in turn is connecte ...

competitions. She won the IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in lead and bouldering events in 2016, as well as Bouldering Japan Cup in 2017. She participated in combined and

speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quanti ...

events at the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

Biography

Ito was born on 25 April 2002, in

Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . ...

, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. She started climbing in her third year of elementary school, encouraged by her father who did sport climbing as a hobby. Her talent was apparent from early on; on her first day of climbing, she reportedly surprised her father by climbing 15 meters up high without stopping, despite not having had any prior climbing experience. She started taking part in public tournaments in 2014, when she came in second place at the 17th Junior Olympic Cup in the under-Youth B age group in

. In 2015, she achieved victory in the Japan Youth Championships lead event (under-Youth B age group), and the All Japan Climbing Youth Championships Bouldering Tournament (Youth C). In the same year, she also won both the lead and bouldering events (Youth C) while representing Japan in the IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in

Putrajaya Putrajaya (), officially the Federal Territory of Putrajaya ( ms, Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya), is a planned capital city which functions as the administrative capital and the judicial capital of Malaysia. The seat of the federal government ...

, Malaysia. In 2016, she entered the All Japan Climbing Championships Lead Tournament, where she came 3rd in the girls' senior category, and won the Youth B category. In November of the same year she represented Japan in the IFSC World Youth Championships in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, China, where she came 2nd in bouldering in the girls' Youth B category. In January 2017, Ito won the 12th Sport Climbing Bouldering Japan Cup, where she faced the more experienced Japanese climbers

Akiyo Noguchi is a Japanese professional rock climber, sport climber and boulderer. She participates in both bouldering and lead climbing competitions. She is known for winning the IFSC Climbing World Cup in Bouldering four times. In her home country, she ...

and

Miho Nonaka is a Japanese competition boulderer. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's combined, winning a silver medal. Life Her father and sister introduced her to climbing when she was 9, and she competed in her first world cup aged 17 ...

. At 14 years and 9 months, Ito was youngest person ever to win the Japan Cup, beating Noguchi's 16 years and 3 months at the first Japan Cup in 2005. She was also the youngest athlete to represent Japan in the 2018 Bouldering World Cup, where she placed 8th. In August 2018 she participated in combined and

events at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

, held in

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. In 2019 she won the Adidas Rockstars bouldering competition. In this event she defeated

Janja Garnbret Janja Garnbret (born March 12, 1999) is a Slovenian rock climbing, rock climber and sport climber who has won multiple lead climbing and bouldering events at climbing competitions. In 2021, she became the first ever female Olympic gold medalist in ...

in the superfinal.

Rankings

IFSC Climbing World Championships The IFSC Climbing World Championships are the biennial (i.e. held once every two years) world championship event for competition climbing that is organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). This event determines the mal ...

IFSC Climbing World Cup The IFSC Climbing World Cup is a series of climbing competitions held annually and organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). The athletes compete in three disciplines: lead, bouldering and speed. The number of competit ...

IFSC Climbing Asian Championships The IFSC Climbing Asian Championships or Asian Sport Climbing Championships are annual Asian championships for competition climbing organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). Until 2006, it was called UIAA Asian Championsh ...

IFSC World Youth Championships

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Futaba 2002 births Living people Japanese rock climbers Sport climbers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Japan