Emi Watanabe

Japanese name
Kanji	渡部絵美
Kana	わたなべ えみ
Transcriptions Romanization Watanabe Emi

Emi Watanabe
Personal information
Full name	Emi Kathleen Watanabe
Country represented	Japan
Born	August 27, 1959 Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.52 m (5 ft 0 in)
Medal record Competitor for  Japan Ladies' Figure skating World Championships 1979 Vienna Ladies' singles

Emi Kathleen Watanabe (渡部 絵美 Watanabe Emi, born August 27, 1959) is a Japanese former competitive figure skater. She 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.

Personal life

Watanabe's father is Japanese, and mother is Filipino.^[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	1972–73	1973–74	1974–75	1975–76	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80
Olympics				13th				6th
Worlds	17th	15th	13th	17th	12th	8th	3rd	4th
Skate Canada				3rd
NHK Trophy								1st
National
Japan Champ.	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st
Japan Junior	1st

References

1. http://tv.nilenile.net/detail/6810.html
2. Watanabe Emi accused of sexual harassment
3. Beauty Colosseum, Fuji TV, July 27, 2010 on YouTube
4. Her election poster

External links

• Official site

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