Keiji Tanaka (田中 刑事, Tanaka Keiji, born November 22, 1994) is a retired Japanese figure skater. He is the 2016 NHK Trophy bronze medalist, 2019 U.S. Classic champion, 2017 Winter Universiade silver medalist, 2011 World Junior silver medalist, and a two-time Japanese national silver medalist (2016, 2017).
Keiji Tanaka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Tanaka in 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country represented | ![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | (1994-11-22) November 22, 1994 (age 27) Kurashiki, Okayama | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home town | Kurashiki, Okayama | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coach | Utako Nagamitsu Sayaka Yodo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former coach | Yusuke Hayashi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Choreographer | Kenji Miyamoto Massimo Scali | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former choreographer | Nanami Abe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Skating club | Kurashiki FSC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former skating club | Kurashiki University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Training locations | Kurashiki Osaka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Began skating | 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Retired | 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
World standing | 18 (2018–19) 15 (2017–18) 21 (2016–17) 25 (2015–16) 47 (2014–15) 38 (2013–14) 35 (2012–13) 34 (2011–12) 63 (2010–11) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
ISU personal best scores | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Combined total | 258.84 2019 World Team Trophy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Short program | 89.05 2019 World Team Trophy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Free skate | 169.91 2019 Skate Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Tanaka began skating in 2002.[1] He trains in Osaka and Kurashiki under coaches Utako Nagamitsu and Yusuke Hayashi.[2]
Tanaka won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix in Romania and placed sixth in his second JGP event in the U.K. He finished ninth at the Japan Junior Championships. At the World Junior Championships, he placed sixth in the short program and first in the long program to win the silver medal.
Tanaka won two medals on the JGP series and qualified for his first JGP Final, where he finished sixth. He finished second at the Junior National Championships. He was seventh in his second trip to the World Junior Championships.
Tanaka won silver at one JGP event and finished 4th in another, qualifying for his second JGP Final, where he placed sixth again. After receiving the junior national bronze medal, he was selected to compete at the 2013 World Junior Championships but withdrew due to injury.[citation needed]
Tanaka won two gold medals during the 2013–14 JGP series and qualified for his third JGP Final. He finished fourth after placing first in the short program and fourth in the free skate. He won his first junior national title and was selected to go to the 2014 World Junior Championships, where he once again finished in seventh place.
Tanaka received one Grand Prix assignment, the 2014 Cup of China, where he placed eighth. He finished eighth at the 2014-15 Japanese National Championships and second at the Gardena Spring Trophy later that season.
During the Grand Prix series, Tanaka placed seventh at the 2016 Rostelecom Cup and won the bronze medal at the 2016 NHK Trophy. He received silver at the Japan Championships, in December 2016. In February 2017, he took silver at the Winter Universiade in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Tanaka finished eighth at the 2017 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy after placing fourth in the short program and ninth in the free skate. He received two Grand Prix assignments, 2017 Rostelecom Cup and 2017 Cup of China. He withdrew from the first event due to a muscle injury in his right hip-pelvic area.[3] In December, Tanaka won his second National silver medal,[4] and was named to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics, 2018 Four Continents Championships and the 2018 World Championships.
At the 2018 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, Tanaka set new personal bests in the short program, free skate and overall, finishing fourth.[5] He placed eighteenth at the 2018 Winter Olympics after placing twentieth in the short and fifteenth in the free.[6] He ended the season with a thirteenth-place finish at the World Championships.
Again beginning the season at the Ondrej Nepela Trophy, Tanaka won the bronze medal. He placed eighth at both of his two Grand Prix assignments, the 2018 Grand Prix of Helsinki and the 2018 Internationaux de France. At the Japanese National Championships, he won the bronze medal behind Shoma Uno and Daisuke Takahashi. He placed seventh at the 2019 Four Continents Championships, and fourteenth at the 2019 World Championships.
Tanaka began his season at the 2019 U.S. Classic, where he won the gold medal.
Tanaka's first Grand Prix assignment was the 2019 Skate Canada International in Kelowna. Whilst traveling from a training session at the arena, Tanaka and fellow Japanese skater Marin Honda were in a car accident that led to both being briefly hospitalized. Tanaka was left with a sore knee.[7] Tanaka was fifth in the short program after tripling a planned quad Salchow and managing only a double toe loop as part of his combination jump.[8] He skated a new personal best in the free skate, despite two jump errors, and won the bronze medal.[9] Tanaka was fifth at the Cup of China, his second Grand Prix.[10]
At the 2019–20 Japan Championships, Tanaka placed fourth in both programs to place fourth overall. He was nevertheless assigned to Japan's team for the 2020 World Championships over bronze medalist Yuma Kagiyama who was assigned to the World Junior and the Four Continents championships.[11][12] The World Championships were subsequently cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[13]
Tanaka was assigned to compete at the 2020 NHK Trophy on the Grand Prix, as part of an all-Japanese men's field in light of the ongoing pandemic limiting international travel. He was fourth in the short program after multiple jump errors.[14] He was fifth in the free skate, but remained in fourth place overall.[15] He placed fourth at the 2020–21 Japan Championships.[16]
Beginning the Grand Prix at the 2021 Skate Canada International, Tanaka finished in tenth place.[17] At his second event, the 2021 Rostelecom Cup, he was ninth.[18]
Tanaka finished in eleventh place at the 2021–22 Japan Championships.[19]
On April 11, he announced his retirement from competitive figure skating, intending to skate in shows and work as an assistant coach.[20]
Season | Short program | Free skating | Exhibition |
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2021–2022 [21] |
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2020–2021 |
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2019–2020 [22] |
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2018–2019 [23] |
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2017–2018 [24] |
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2016–2017 [1] |
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2015–2016 [26] |
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2014–2015 [27] |
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2013–2014 [28] |
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2012–2013 [29] |
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2011–2012 [30][2] |
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2010–2011 [31] |
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GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix
International[19] | ||||||||||||||||||
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Event | 04–05 | 05–06 | 06–07 | 07–08 | 08–09 | 09–10 | 10–11 | 11–12 | 12–13 | 13–14 | 14–15 | 15–16 | 16–17 | 17–18 | 18–19 | 19–20 | 20–21 | 21–22 |
Olympics | 18th | |||||||||||||||||
Worlds | 19th | 13th | 14th | C | ||||||||||||||
Four Continents | 17th | 6th | 13th | 4th | 7th | |||||||||||||
GP Cup of China | 8th | 7th | 5th | |||||||||||||||
GP Finland | 8th | |||||||||||||||||
GP France | 8th | |||||||||||||||||
GP NHK Trophy | 5th | 3rd | 4th | |||||||||||||||
GP Rostelecom Cup | 7th | WD | 9th | |||||||||||||||
GP Skate Canada | 3rd | 10th | ||||||||||||||||
CS U.S. Classic | 2nd | 10th | 1st | |||||||||||||||
CS Ondrej Nepela | 8th | 3rd | ||||||||||||||||
Asian Open | 2nd | 1st | 1st | |||||||||||||||
Challenge Cup | 2nd | |||||||||||||||||
Cup of Nice | 7th | 3rd | ||||||||||||||||
Gardena Trophy | 2nd | |||||||||||||||||
Triglav Trophy | 2nd | |||||||||||||||||
Universiade | 2nd | |||||||||||||||||
International: Junior[19] | ||||||||||||||||||
Junior Worlds | 2nd | 7th | 7th | |||||||||||||||
JGP Final | 6th | 6th | 4th | |||||||||||||||
JGP Australia | 2nd | |||||||||||||||||
JGP Austria | 3rd | |||||||||||||||||
JGP Czech Rep. | 1st | |||||||||||||||||
JGP Romania | 3rd | |||||||||||||||||
JGP Slovakia | 1st | |||||||||||||||||
JGP Slovenia | 4th | |||||||||||||||||
JGP U.K. | 6th | |||||||||||||||||
JGP USA | 2nd | |||||||||||||||||
Asian Trophy | 1st | |||||||||||||||||
National[32] | ||||||||||||||||||
Japan Champ. | 8th | 11th | 7th | 7th | 8th | 8th | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 4th | 11th | |||||
Japan Junior | 16th | 8th | 6th | 6th | 9th | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | ||||||||||
Japan Novice | 8th B | 3rd B | 2nd A | 2nd A | ||||||||||||||
Team events | ||||||||||||||||||
Olympics | 5th T 5th P | |||||||||||||||||
World Team Trophy | 2nd T 5th P | |||||||||||||||||
Japan Open | 2nd T 3rd P | |||||||||||||||||
TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew; C = Cancelled T = Team result; P = Personal result. Medals awarded for team result only. |
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. Current ISU world bests highlighted in bold and italic. Personal bests are highlighted in bold.
2021–22 season | ||||
Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
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December 22–26, 2021 | 2021–22 Japan Championships | 10 84.10 |
9 148.32 |
11 232.42 |
November 26–28, 2021 | 2021 Rostelecom Cup | 10 76.69 |
10 153.06 |
9 229.75 |
October 29–31, 2021 | 2021 Skate Canada International | 6 78.83 |
12 143.37 |
10 222.20 |
October 3, 2021 | 2021 Japan Open | – | 3 163.93 |
2T |
2020–21 season | ||||
Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
December 24–27, 2020 | 2020–21 Japan Championships | 4 83.61 |
4 155.22 |
4 238.83 |
November 27–29, 2020 | 2020 NHK Trophy | 4 76.57 |
5 138.95 |
4 215.52 |
2019–20 season | ||||
Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
February 20–23, 2020 | 2020 Challenge Cup | 3 75.54 |
2 165.64 |
2 241.18 |
December 18–22, 2019 | 2019–20 Japan Championships | 4 80.90 |
5 171.54 |
4 252.44 |
November 8–10, 2019 | 2019 Cup of China | 7 74.64 |
5 158.98 |
5 233.62 |
October 25–27, 2019 | 2019 Skate Canada | 5 80.11 |
3 169.91 |
3 250.02 |
September 17–22, 2019 | 2019 CS U.S. International Classic | 2 88.76 |
1 161.20 |
1 249.96 |
2018–19 season | ||||
Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
April 11–14, 2019 | 2019 World Team Trophy | 4 89.05 |
6 169.79 |
2T/5P 258.84 |
February 7–10, 2019 | 2019 Four Continents Championships | 7 83.93 |
6 167.61 |
7 251.54 |
December 21–24, 2018 | 2018–19 Japan Championships | 4 79.32 |
2 157.13 |
3 236.45 |
November 23–25, 2018 | 2018 Internationaux de France | 8 79.35 |
8 136.97 |
8 216.32 |
November 2–4, 2018 | 2018 Grand Prix of Helsinki | 7 80.60 |
9 126.22 |
8 206.82 |
September 19–22, 2018 | 2018 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy | 3 77.53 |
4 144.39 |
3 221.92 |
2017–18 season | ||||
Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
March 19–25, 2018 | 2018 World Championships | 14 80.17 |
12 156.49 |
13 236.66 |
February 14–23, 2018 | 2018 Winter Olympics (men's singles) | 20 80.05 |
15 164.78 |
18 244.83 |
February 9–11, 2018 | 2018 Winter Olympics (team event) | – |
5 148.36 |
5T/5P |
January 22–28, 2018 | 2018 Four Continents Championships | 3 90.68 |
5 169.63 |
4 260.31 |
December 21–24, 2017 | 2017–18 Japan Championships | 2 91.34 |
2 175.81 |
2 267.15 |
November 3–5, 2017 | 2017 Cup of China | 4 87.19 |
8 159.98 |
7 247.17 |
September 21–23, 2017 | 2017 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy | 4 75.81 |
9 121.37 |
8 197.18 |
August 2–5, 2017 | 2017 Asian Trophy | 2 68.75 |
1 151.33 |
1 220.08 |
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Asian Open Trophy champions in figure skating – Men's singles | |
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U.S. International Figure Skating Classic champions in figure skating – Men's singles | |
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