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Para Alpine Skiing Women’s Giant Slalom Sitting 2^nd place

Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics 2026.03.12

Muraoka skis the second run of the Women’s Giant Slalom Sitting event. She won the silver medal. (Photo: Kyodo News)

At the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics on March 12, Momoka Muraoka (Graduate School of Sport Sciences), a former member of Waseda University’s ski club, won her second silver medal of the Games in the Para Alpine Skiing Women’s Giant Slalom Sitting event. Her total number of individual medals won at a Winter Paralympics has now reached 11, surpassing the 10 medals won by Kuniko Obinata (2017 graduate from the Graduate School of Sport Sciences), the Head of Team Japan, making her the Japanese athlete with the most medals won.

This is her specialty event, in which she has won back-to-back gold medals at the Pyeongchang and Beijing Games. In contrast to her previous performance, where she skied cautiously due to a fractured left collarbone sustained in November, she approached this competition with an aggressive attitude and brilliantly secured the silver medal.

Silver medalist Muraoka (left) smiles with her medal at the awards ceremony for the Women’s Giant Slalom Sitting event. (Photo: Kyodo News)

Muraoka, who secured second place with a solid run in the first round, put in a daring performance in the second round in an attempt to overturn the result, but narrowly missed out on the gold medal. In a post-competition interview, Muraoka said, “Right now, I feel like I’ve really given it my all. It was incredibly fun.”

A Congratulatory Message from Waseda University President Aiji Tanaka

Momoka Muraoka, a student in the Graduate School of Sport Sciences at our university who competed in the Milan-Cortina Winter Paralympics, won her second silver medal of the Games in the Para Alpine Skiing Women’s Giant Slalom Sitting event. This brings her total number of Winter Paralympics medals to 11, setting a new record for the most medals won by an athlete from Japan. I offer my heartfelt congratulations. Her words after the competition, “I feel like I’ve really given it my all. It was incredibly fun,” were brimming with a sense of fulfillment.

After a difficult rehabilitation following a serious injury last November, Muraoka achieved top placements in all four events she competed in (*). I was deeply moved by her performance, where she fully demonstrated the results of her hard work on the grandest stage. She showed us the importance of never giving up and continuing to challenge ourselves, and her efforts throughout this competition were the greatest encouragement for Waseda University’s students, alumni, and faculty. I wholeheartedly wish her continued success in her future endeavors.

Waseda University President Aiji Tanaka

*Women’s Super-G Sitting 2nd place, Women’s Alpine Combined Sitting 5th place, Women’s Giant Slalom Sitting 2nd place, Women’s Slalom Sitting 7th place

Participant & Competition Results

▽Women’s Giant Slalom Sitting Momoka Muraoka   Silver Medal（Total 2 min 31.92 secs; 1^st run: 1 min 15.66 secs, 2^nd run: 1 min 16.26 secs ）

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