is a Japanese

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

who represented

Japan at the 2020 Summer Olympics Japan was the host nation of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020 but postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the nation's official debut in 1912 S ...

. She is the 2021 World Champion on the balance beam.

Personal life

Ashikawa was born in

Fuji Fuji may refer to: Places China * Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan Japan * Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan * Fuji River * Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture * Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefectur ...

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

, Japan in 2003. She began gymnastics when she was a year old and began training at Mizutori Gymnasium when she was in second grade.

Career

Junior

2016–17

In 2016 Ashikawa competed at the All-Japan Event Championships where she placed third on balance beam behind

Asuka Teramoto is a Japanese gymnast. Teramoto was born in Komaki, Aichi. Her first major international senior competition was the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. In the team all-around finals, she contributed on vaulting, uneven ...

and Kiko Kuwajima. In 2018 she again competed at the All-Japan Event Championships and once again placed third on balance beam behind Teramoto and

Natsumi Sasada is a Japanese artistic gymnast. She was part of the silver medalling team at the 2015 Summer Universiade where she also won a bronze medal in the individual all-around competition. Sasada also competed for Japan in the first ever Youth Olympic ...

2018

In 2018 Ashikawa represented Japan at the Asian Junior Championships alongside Haruka Ikeda, Hinata Matsubara, Shoko Miyata, and Ayumi Niiyama. They placed second in the team final behind China. Individually Ashikawa placed fifth in the all-around, seventh on uneven bars, and sixth on balance beam. At the All-Japan Event Championships Ashikawa placed ninth on balance beam during qualifications and did not qualify to the event final. She ended the season competing at the World Cup trials where she placed second on balance beam behind Mana Oguchi.

Senior

2019

Ashikawa turned senior in 2019. She made her senior international debut at the

2019 City of Jesolo Trophy The 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy was the 12th annual ''Trofeo di Jesolo'' gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The ...

where she placed 16th in the all-around and seventh on uneven bars and balance beam. At the All Japan Event Championships she placed sixth on balance beam. In November she made her World Cup debut at the Cottbus World Cup where she won gold on balance beam ahead of Ukrainian

Diana Varinska Diana Yevhenivna Varinska ( uk, Діана Євгенівна Варінська, born 22 March 2001) is a retired Ukrainian artistic gymnast. She is the 2019 European Games all-around and balance beam bronze medalist. Additionally, she was a mem ...

2020

In February Ashikawa competed at the Melbourne World Cup where she once again won gold on balance beam, this time ahead of first-year senior

Ondine Achampong Ondine Achampong (born 10 February 2004) is a British artistic gymnast who was part of the women's team that won silver at the 2022 World Championships. She won a gold medal with the English team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and individuall ...

of Great Britain. She next competed at the Baku World Cup where she qualified to the balance beam final in first place; however event finals were canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan The COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Azerbaijan when its first case was ...

. The

FIG The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

later ruled that the results of qualification would be used for point distribution for Olympic qualification, meaning Ashikawa earned a perfect score of 90 and no other competitor could match her score on the balance beam.

2021

In June Ashikawa was officially awarded an Olympic berth via the Apparatus World Cup series and competed at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

as an individual athlete. She was originally the first reserve for the balance beam final but was able to compete when

Larisa Iordache Larisa Andreea Iordache (; born 19 June 1996) is a former Romanians, Romanian Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She represented Romania at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Romania at the 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal with the team, a ...

withdrew. She finished sixth. In October Ashikawa competed at the

2021 World Championships 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

Kitakyushu is a Cities of Japan, city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, Kitakyushu has an estimated population of 940,978, making it the second-largest city in both Fukuoka Prefecture and the island of Kyushu after the city of Fuku ...

. While there she won gold on the balance beam. This was Japan's second world gold medal on the apparatus following

Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda (田中-池田敬子, born Keiko Tanaka on November 11, 1933) is the first Japanese female gymnast to win a world title, which she accomplished on the balance beam in 1954 (by becoming first Asian female gymnast who win a worl ...

's win in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

. Ashikawa became the third Japanese woman to win a world title in

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

following Tanaka-Ikeda and

Mai Murakami is a retired Japanese artistic gymnast and Olympic medalist. She is the 2017 World Champion and 2021 World Champion on floor exercise, the 2018 World all-around silver medalist and floor exercise bronze medalist, and a four-time Japanese nat ...

Competitive history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashikawa, Urara 2003 births Living people Japanese female artistic gymnasts Sportspeople from Shizuoka Prefecture Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts of Japan World champion gymnasts Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 21st-century Japanese women