Milan-Cortina Olympics Results: Two Current Students Shine, Watabe Places 6th in Final Race
Wed, Mar 4, 2026-
Tags
Akito Watabe is lifted up in celebration after his final Olympic run (Photo: Kyodo News)
The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics were held from February 6th to 22nd, 2026, and two current students and ten alumni from Waseda University participated.
Please see their results below.
Click to enlarge
Figure skater Mone Chiba takes fourth place with her personal best while Mitsuki Ono gets the bronze in Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe
Mone Chiba performing in the women’s free skating event (Photo: Kyodo News)
Mitsuki Ono (4th year, School of Sport Sciences) won the bronze medal in the Women’s Halfpipe snowboarding event, and Mone Chiba (School of Human Sciences’ Online Degree Program) achieved a personal best of 217.88 points to take an impressive 4th place in Women’s Single Skating event.
“I am very happy that I was able to perform in this big event. I really had no regrets about the content of my performance today, so I will continue to work hard towards the World Championships,” said Chiba said.
Nordic Combined Athlete Akito Watabe: “If the cherry blossoms that fell halfway along the path can become a guidepost for the young athletes who continue forward, that would be my greatest wish.”
Akito Watabe and Ryota Yamamoto (left) after the Men’s Team Sprint event (Photo: Kyodo News)
Alum Akito Watabe (2011 graduate of the School of Sport Sciences), who has competed in six consecutive Olympic Games since the Turin Games in 2006, placed sixth in the Men’s Team Sprint, his final Olympic event. As his final run it was the culmination of his career in which he teamed up with his fellow Waseda ski club member Ryota Yamamoto (2020 graduate of the School of Sport Sciences).
Watabe has announced that he will retire at the end of this season, and when asked in a post-competition interview whether the “cherry blossoms had bloomed,” he replied, “I wasn’t able to make an out-of-season cherry blossom bloom in the end, but I believe everyone was able to watch until the very last petal fell. If the cherry blossoms that fell halfway along the path can become a guidepost for the young athletes who continue forward, that would be my greatest wish.”
Thank you to everyone for supporting Waseda athletes!
Chiba (third from the left in the front) enters the stadium as part of the figure skating team at the closing ceremony. (Photo: Kyodo News)
