On April 30, Japanese figure skater Ando Miki made history by winning the world figure skating championships for the second time in Moscow. She won her first gold medal in 2007. The competition was supposed to be held in Tokyo, Japan in late March. However, due to the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11, it had to be delayed and relocated to Russia.

“I was skating for Japan and I never cared about the result. In fact, my performance wasn’t perfect; I had some small mistakes and not enough speed. I had a bad injury and didn’t skate for two weeks before the competition,” said Ando after winning the gold medal. “But I enjoyed skating because I was skating for my country. Now I’m very happy to win a gold medal. I worked hard and I’ve become a stronger skater than a year ago,” she added with a bright smile.

The 23-year-old skater performed to Grieg’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” and her overall score was 195.79 points, 1.29 points ahead of Kim Yu-na. “This was the last time to skate this program and I really wanted to do my best,” Ando said. “I won my first world title in Japan and now my second title here in Moscow. I’m very happy about that because I consider Russia as my second home.”

Born on December 18, 1987 in Nagoya, Japan, Ando began skating when she was 8 years old. In 2003, she became the first and only Japanese female skater to complete a quadruple jump successfully in competition at the Junior Grand Prix Final, which was held in The Hague. She remains the only woman to ever achieve this feat. In 2004, she became the World Junior Champion. As of April 30 this year, the International Skating Union (ISU)국제빙상연맹 ranked her 3rd in the world.
Olympic champion Kim Yu-na, who performed beautifully to “Homage to Korea,” won the silver medal. “I’m just so glad that the competition is over,” Kim said. She moved her training base from Toronto to Los Angeles last year and has been working with a new coach Peter Oppegard.
Carolina Kostner of Italy took the bronze medal after performing to the dreamy music of Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun.” Mao Asada of Japan, who is considered Kim’s main rival, finished 6th after making a few mistakes in her short program.