Ayaka Kikuchi (speed skater)

Ayaka Kikuchi (菊池 彩花, Kikuchi Ayaka, born 28 June 1987) is a Japanese speed skater.

Ayaka Kikuchi

Kikuchi (right) at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Personal information
Born	(1987-06-28) 28 June 1987 (age 36) Japan
Sport
Country	Japan
Sport	Speed skating
Medal record Women's speed skating Representing  Japan Olympic Games 2018 Pyeongchang Team pursuit World Championships 2015 Heerenveen Team pursuit Asian Championships 2012 Astana Allround 2011 Harbin Allround

Biography

Kikuchi won bronze at the 2011 Asian Speed Skating Championships and silver at the 2012 Asian Speed Skating Championships. With these results she qualified for the World Allround Speed Skating Championships in both 2011 (finished 22nd) and 2012 (finished 19th).

In the 2014 Winter Olympics Kikuchi participated in the 1500 meters, finishing 31st, and was part of the women's team pursuit, who finished fourth.

In 2015 Ayaka Kikuchi became a world champion, when in the 2015 World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships she won the gold medal in the team pursuit where she participated together with the sisters Miho and Nana Takagi.

In 2018, Kikuchi was part of the Japanese team that won the Olympics women team pursuit gold medal.^[1]

Personal records

Distance	Result	Date	Location
500 m	39.80	7 January 2012	Alau Ice Palace, Astana
1000 m	1:19.10	27 December 2011	Meiji Hokkaido-Tokachi Oval, Obihiro
1500 m	1:54.12	21 November 2015	Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City
3000 m	4:11.86	12 February 2011	Olympic Oval, Calgary
5000 m	7:13.69	18 February 2011	Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City

Honours

• Medal with Purple Ribbon (2018)

See also

• World record progression team pursuit speed skating women

References

1. Fielding, Gus (February 22, 2018), , The Japan Times, archived from the original on April 26, 2019, retrieved February 22, 2018

• Ayaka Kikuchi at Speedskatingresults.com
• Ayaka Kikuchi at SpeedSkatingNews.info