Etsuko Inada

Etsuko Inada (稲田 悦子, Inada Etsuko, Hiragana: いなだ えつこ; February 8, 1924 – July 8, 2003)[1] was a Japanese figure skater who mostly competed in singles. She was the first female athlete to represent Japan at the Winter Olympics.[2]

The native form of this personal name is Inada Etsuko. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Etsuko Inada
Inada (left) during an exhibition gala in 1937
Native name稲田 悦子
Born(1924-02-08)February 8, 1924
Osaka, Japan
DiedJuly 8, 2003(2003-07-08) (aged 79)
Chiba, Chiba, Japan
Figure skating career
Country Japan
Began skating1932
Retired1952

Inada began skating at eight years old.[3] She was a seven-time Japanese national champion and represented Japan at the 1936 Winter Olympics at the age of 12.[4] While competing there, she wore a costume given to her by the Japanese Women's Association of Berlin.[2]

After the war, she married and had a son. She returned to competitive skating and won a competition shortly before the planned 1949 Japanese national championships, but the national championships were cancelled due to the weather becoming too warm.[5] Her last competition was the 1951 World Figure Skating Championships.

Later in her life, she opened a store in Aoyama, Tokyo and coached at a rink in front of the Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum, which holds her costume from the Olympics in its collection.[6][7] Her students included Olympic skaters Miwa Fukuhara, Junko Hiramatsu, and Haruko Okamoto. She died in 2003 from stomach cancer.[3]

Competitive highlights
International
Event 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1950–51
Olympics10th
Worlds10th21st
Europeans9th
National
Japan1st1st1st1st1st1st1st
Japan Jr.1st

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Etsuko Inada.
  1. "Etsuko Inada". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-20.
  2. Kietlinski, Robin (2011). Japanese women and sport: beyond baseball and sumo. Globalizing sport studies. London: Bloomsbury. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-84966-340-3.
  3. "フィギュア界の草分け稲田悦子さんが死去" [Trailblazing figure skater Inada Etsuko has died]. Nikkan Sports (in Japanese). 2021-03-07. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  4. 1936年の冬季オリンピックで12歳のフィギュアスケート選手 [12-year-old figure skater Etsuko Inada at the 1936 Olympics] (in Japanese). Japanese Olympic Committee. November 24, 2005. Archived from the original on December 3, 2005.
  5. "Skating Around the World" (PDF). Skating. May 1949. p. 33. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  6. 三上, 孝道 (2013-08-24). "稲田悦子のコスチューム ～12歳のフィギュアスケーター" [Inada Estuko's Costume: The 12-year-old Figure Skater]. Japanese Olympic Committee (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  7. "稲田悦子のコスチューム（フィギュアスケート）" [Inada Etsuko's Costume (Figure skating)]. Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum. (in Japanese). 2017-09-06. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
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