Shoma Uno

Shoma Uno (宇野 昌磨, Uno Shōma, born 17 December 1997) is a Japanese figure skater. He is the 2017 World silver medalist, the 2017 Four Continents bronze medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medalist (2015, 2016), the 2017 Asian Winter Games champion, and the 2016–17 Japanese national champion. Earlier in his career, he became the 2015 World Junior champion, 2014–15 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and 2012 Youth Olympic silver medalist.

Uno is the first skater to successfully land a quadruple flip in an international competition. He is also the current record-holder for the highest score by a junior in the short program.

Shoma Uno was born December 17, 1997 in Nagoya, Japan. Shoma has a younger brother named Itsuki Uno.

Uno started skating when he was five because of Mao Asada, who talked to him on a skating rink. His figure skating idol is Daisuke Takahashi.

2011–12 season: Junior international debut

Uno made his Junior Grand Prix (JGP) debut in the 2011–12 season, winning a bronze medal at the JGP Tallinn Cup in Estonia after placing 4th at the event in Poland. At the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics, he won silver in the individual event and gold in the team event. He finished 10th at the 2012 World Junior Championships.

2012–13 season

In 2012–13, Uno finished 6th at his Junior Grand Prix in Slovenia. At his next JGP event, in Germany, he won the silver medal with personal bests in both programs and a total score of 188.48 points. He finished 7th at the 2013 World Junior Championships.

2013–14 season: Senior international debut

In 2013–14, Uno competed in his third JGP season, winning the bronze medal in Riga, Latvia, and placing 4th in Tallinn, Estonia. He placed 5th at the 2014 World Junior Championships and won his first international senior competition at the 2014 Gardena Spring Trophy.

2014–15 season: World Junior champion

In 2014–15, Uno began his season by winning his second senior international competition at the 2014 Asian Trophy. He was assigned to the JGP events in Japan and Croatia. He placed second in Japan and first in Croatia with new personal best scores and qualified for his first JGP Final. He won his first junior national title at the 2014–15 Japan Junior Championships. The following month, he won gold at the JGP Final. At the 2014–15 Japan Championships, he placed 3rd in both segments of the competition, winning the silver medal.

Uno made his senior ISU Championship debut at the 2015 Four Continents; he placed second in the short program, fifth in the free skate, and fifth overall, setting personal best scores in all segments. He ended his season by winning the 2015 World Junior Championships, becoming the fifth Japanese man to do so.

2015–16 season: First quad flip in international competition

Uno started his season with a 5th-place finish at the 2015 U.S. Classic, placing 9th in the short program but winning the free skate. He then went on to win the individual event of the 2015 Japan Open, defeating World champions Javier Fernandez, Brian Joubert and Patrick Chan.

Making his senior Grand Prix debut, Uno won the silver medal at 2015 Skate America after placing fourth in the short and first in the free, finishing only 1.52 points behind gold medalist Max Aaron. Uno then made some training changes, saying "During Skate America, I felt that I lacked a bit of stamina so I increased the number of run-throughs in training every day and started to do off-ice stamina training." He placed first in the short program at the 2015 Trophée Éric Bompard. Due to the November 2015 Paris attacks, the free skate was cancelled and the short program standings were deemed the final results. Uno thus became the winner of the event and qualified for the 2015–16 Grand Prix Final in Barcelona. In Spain, he was awarded the bronze medal behind Hanyu and Fernández.

After repeating as the national silver medalist, Uno finished fourth behind Patrick Chan, Jin Boyang and Yan Han at the 2016 Four Continents Championships, having ranked second to Jin in the short program and fifth in the free skate. At the 2016 World Championships in Boston, he placed 4th in the short program, 6th in the long, and 7th overall. At the 2016 Team Challenge Cup, Uno became the first skater to ever land a quadruple flip at an international competition. He landed two quads in his short program, 4F and 4T-3T combination, and scored a personal best of 105.74 points.

2016–17 season

In December 2016, Uno was fourth in the short program with 86.82 points after falling on his quadruple toe loop and failing the combination in the Grand Prix Final. He rallied back in the free skate with a personal best of 195.69 points and placing second in that segment. He placed third overall and won the bronze medal for the second consecutive year, just 0.34 points behind silver medalist Nathan Chen and 11.39 points behind gold medalist Yuzuru HanyuLater that month, he won his first national title. In February, he broke the hundred-point barrier with a score of 100.28 in the short program for the first time in his career at the Four Continents Championships, being the fourth person to do so. In the free skate he landed four quad jumps, including his first ever quad loop in international competition and a quad flip, but fell on both his triple axel combinations. He placed 2nd in the short program, 3rd in the free skate and won the bronze medal with a score of 288.05 behind Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu. At the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki, he set new personal best scores for both the short program with a score of 104.86 and free skate with a score of 214.45, earning the silver medal with the fourth ever highest combined score of 319.31, just 2.28 points behind World Champion Yuzuru Hanyu and 15.73 points ahead of bronze medalist Jin Boyang.

• Successfully landed a quadruple flip jump at the 2016 Team Challenge Cup, becoming the first skater to land one at an international competition.
• Set the junior-level men's record for the short program score to 84.87 points at the 2015 Junior Worlds.
• Set the junior-level men's record for the combined total to 238.27 points at the 2014-15 Junior Grand Prix Final. Record was broken by Cha Jun-hwan at the 2016 JGP Japan.
• Set the junior-level men's record for the free program score to 163.06 points at the 2014-15 Junior Grand Prix Final. Record was broken by Vincent Zhou at the 2017 Junior Worlds.

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Small medals for short and free programs are awarded only at ISU Championships. At team events, medals are awarded for team results only. T – team result. P – personal/individual result. Personal bests are highlighted in bold.

Uno at the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final

Uno at the 2015–16 Grand Prix Final

Uno at the 2012 World Junior Championships

Notes