Etsuko Inada
 Inada (left) during an exhibition gala in 1937 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 稲田 悦子 |
| Born | February 8, 1924 Osaka, Japan |
| Died | July 8, 2003 (aged 79) Chiba, Chiba, Japan |
| Figure skating career | |
| Country |  Japan |
| Began skating | 1932 |
| Retired | 1952 |
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]
Early life
[edit]Inada was born on February 8, 1924 in Osaka. Her family ran a watch store, and she was the youngest of three sisters.[3]
Career
[edit]
Inada began skating at eight years old after watching an ice show; her two older sisters also began skating for a short time.[3][4] She was a seven-time Japanese national champion.[5] She won the junior women's division at the Japanese Championships when it was trialed in 1934, then won the first senior women's championships in 1935.[3]
Her coach was Kōzō Nagai. Nagai had no experience with skating himself, but he was an enthusiast of the sport and contributed to its spread in Japan.[3]
After competing at the 1936 European Championships,[3] at the age of 12, she was the first female athlete to represent Japan at the 1936 Winter Olympics.[5] While competing there, she wore a costume given to her by the Japanese Women's Association of Berlin.[2] Shortly after, she also competed at the 1936 World Championships and placed 10th. Theresa Weld, writing for Skating magazine, wrote that she was well-liked by the other skaters and that, "She can do almost every thing on both feet, which is most unusual", and she also praised her ability to learn new elements quickly.[6]
Between 1937 and 1941, she won five consecutive Japanese national titles.[3]
After the war, Inada 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.[7] Her last competition was the 1951 World Figure Skating Championships, where she placed 21st of 23 skaters.[8] In 1952, she turned professional.[3]
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.[9][10] Her students included Olympic skaters Miwa Fukuhara, Junko Hiramatsu, and Haruko Okamoto. She died in 2003 from stomach cancer.[4]
Competitive highlights
[edit]| International | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | 1933–34 | 1934–35 | 1935–36 | 1936–37 | 1937–38 | 1938–39 | 1939–40 | 1940–41 | 1950–51 |
| Olympics | 10th | ||||||||
| Worlds | 10th | 21st | |||||||
| Europeans | 9th | ||||||||
| National | |||||||||
| Japan | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | ||
| Japan Jr. | 1st | ||||||||
References
[edit]
- ^ "Etsuko Inada". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013.
- ^ a b Kietlinski, Robin (2011). Japanese women and sport: beyond baseball and sumo. Globalizing sport studies. London: Bloomsbury. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-84966-340-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g Matsubara, Shigeaki (September 11, 2019). "稲田悦子 女子フィギュアスケートの先駆者" [Inada Etsuko: Women's figure skating trailblaizer]. Sasakawa Sports Foundation (in Japanese). Retrieved November 11, 2025.
- ^ a b "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). March 7, 2021. Archived from the original on March 7, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Blanchard, Theresa Weld (April 1936). "1936 Championships of the World". Skating. pp. 34–35.
- ^ "Skating Around the World" (PDF). Skating. May 1949. p. 33. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
- ^ "The Championships of the World". Skating. Vol. 28, no. 6. April 1951. p. 19.
- ^ 三上, 孝道 (August 24, 2013). "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 August 24, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
- ^ "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). September 6, 2017. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
