Emi Watanabe

Emi Kathleen Watanabe (渡部 絵美, Watanabe Emi, born August 27, 1959) is a Japanese former competitive figure skater who is the 1979 World bronze medalist and an eight-time Japanese national champion. She was the first skater to medal for Japan in ladies' singles at the World Championships.

Emi Watanabe
Personal information
Full nameEmi Kathleen Watanabe
Country representedJapan
Born (1959-08-27) August 27, 1959
Tokyo, Japan
Height1.52 m (5 ft 0 in)
Japanese name
Kanji渡部絵美
Kanaわたなべ えみ

Personal life

Watanabe's mother is Filipino and father is Japanese.[1] She graduated from Golden Valley High School in Minnesota.

Skating career

In the 1972–73 season, Watanabe won Japanese national titles on both the junior and senior levels. She then made her World Championship debut, finishing 17th.

In the 1975–76 season, Watanabe took bronze at the 1975 Skate Canada International and then won her fourth national title. She was assigned to the 1976 Winter Olympics and finished 13th. She was 17th in her final event of the season, the 1976 World Championships.

Watanabe broke into the World top ten at the 1978 World Championships, placing 8th. The next season, she won the bronze medal at 1979 Worlds, becoming the first Japanese lady to medal at the event.

In her final competitive season, Watanabe won gold at the 1979 NHK Trophy and then won her eighth national title. She placed 6th at the 1980 Winter Olympics. She ended her competitive career at the 1980 World Championships, where she placed 4th.

Later career

After retiring from competitive skating, Watanabe went into show business and helped to popularize figure skating in Japan while becoming a national celebrity through her numerous appearances on television and in magazines and newspapers.

Since the 1990s, she has come to be known as "a troublemaker". She wrote muckraking books about trouble with some TV personalities, skaters and Japanese winter sports tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi.[2] She also often appears on reality television series which follows overweight celebrities as they try to lose weight.[3]

Watanabe ran for The House of Councilors election in 2001 from Liberal League, but lost.[4]

Results
International
Event 72–73 73–74 74–75 75–76 76–77 77–78 78–79 79–80
Winter Olympics13th6th
World Champ.17th15th13th17th12th8th3rd4th
Skate Canada3rd
NHK Trophy1st
National
Japan Champ.1st1st1st1st1st1st1st1st
Japan Jr. Champ.1st
gollark: Nobody will stop you because you have an orbital doomsday device.
gollark: "Excuse me, but you're not permitted to have that orbital doomsday device here, we'd like to request that you turn over control of the orbital doomsday device to a UN committee."
gollark: The Outer Space Treaty? Nobody will care about that as soon as there is *some* commercial or military or whatever gain.
gollark: They could also just launch satellites carrying metal things and mass drivers or whatever.
gollark: Or nuclear fission, which is cooler and energy-denser.

References
  2. Watanabe Emi accused of sexual harassment
  3. Beauty Colosseum, Fuji TV, July 27, 2010 on YouTube
  4. Her election poster


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