Uno Shoma, born on 17 December 1997, is a three-time Olympic figure skating medallist from Japan. He won individual silver at PyeongChang 2018, as well as bronze in both the team and individual events at Beijing 2022 (as of 2 March 2022, the team event results are provisional). The native of Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, one of the country's hotbeds for figure skating, is unsurprisingly one of his country's top skaters.
How it all began
Uno took up skating at the age of five after going to the rink for fun initially - though it quickly became more than a hobby. By sheer coincidence, he met Vancouver 2010 silver medallist Asada Mao at a local skate school and was hooked. As stablemates under renowned coach Yamada Machiko, Uno would practise with Asada for five years before she moved her base overseas. Skating was also a form of physical training for young Uno, who was born prematurely and struggled with asthma as a child. Of all the sports his parents had him try, skating was the one he stuck with. Growing up, Uno looked up to another Vancouver 2010 medallist - Takahashi Daisuke (bronze).
The breakthrough
Uno started raising eyebrows in 2009 when he debuted at the junior national championships and placed third. For the 2011-2012 season, he threw his hat into the ring for the Junior Grand Prix Series and went on to make his senior nationals debut that year, when he was also picked for the junior world championships and won silver at the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck. The 2014-2015 campaign was when Uno's career really took off; he finished second at the senior nationals and swept a horde of titles - the Asian Open Trophy, junior nationals, Junior Grand Prix Final and the junior worlds. Uno joined the senior circuit full-time the following season.
Up, up and away
The rise continued for Uno who, in 2015-2016, became the first-ever male singles skater to medal (bronze) in his first Grand Prix Final while marking his Four Continents and world championships debut. He captured the first of his four successive national titles that season, and was back-to-back runner-up at the 2017 and 2018 world championships and Grand Prix Final. Flashing four different quadruple jumps, his podium finish at PyeongChang 2018 in his maiden Games, behind only reigning champion Hanyu Yuzuru, came as of no surprise. In June 2019, Uno parted with Yamada after 15 years and went without a coach for a season. He is now under the tutelage of fellow Olympic silver medallist Stephane Lambiel, having moved his training base to Switzerland.
Beijing 2022
Uno set two short program personal bests in the Chinese capital, first delivering in the team event men's short (without coach Lambiel by his side) as Japan eventually won bronze (the full result is provisional). He would improve on that score by nearly half a point in the individual event, scoring 105.90 points for his new personal record. It would be enough to help him to another bronze, behind Nathan Chen and teammate Kagiyama Yuma, but ahead of the two-time champion Hanyu.
