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Nao Kodaira
	; Kodaira during the 2018 Olympics;
Personal information
Native name	小平奈緒
Nationality	Japanese
Born	; (1986-05-26) 26 May 1986 (age 32); Chino, Nagano, Japan;
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	61 kg (134 lb)
Sport
Country	Japan
Sport	Speed skating
Event(s)	500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m
	;
; Olympic Games;
; World Single Distances Championships;
; World Sprint Championships;
; Asian Winter Games;
; Winter Universiade;

Nao Kodaira (Japanese: 小平奈緒; born 26 May 1986) is a Japanese long-track speed skater who specialises in the sprint distances.

She is the 2018 Olympic champion in the 500 m distance. Kodaira is the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic gold medal in speed skating.

In 2009, she graduated from Shinshu University with a bachelor's degree in education.

Career

At the 2010 Winter Olympics she won a silver medal in the team pursuit event. She placed 5th in the 1000 and the 1500 m events and 12th in the 500 m one at the Olympics. At the 2014–15 World Cup stop in Seoul, South Korea, on 21 November 2014, she won the 500 m event, and she has a total of 25 podium placings in the world cup. At the 2015 world single distance championships, she won the bronze medal in the 500 m event.

At the 2017 world single distance championships, she became the first Japanese woman to win an individual single distance world title winning the women's 500 m event.^[1] She won also silver medal in the 1000 m event at the championships. At the world sprint championships in the year, she won the women's competition. In the season, she became overall winner of ISU World Cup 500 m cup.

Kodaira took the top step also in every single ISU world cup one in the 2017–18 season ahead of the Olympics.^[2]

She is the current world record holder in the 2×500 metres and the sprint combination,^[3] and the former world record holder in the 1000 metres^[4] and the team sprint, as well as the current Olympic and Japanese record holder in the 500 metres.^[5]^[6]

At the 2018 Winter Olympics, Kodaira won gold medal in the women's 500 m event and silver one in the women's 1000 m event respectively. In the former, she also set an Olympic record and became the first woman to break the 37-second barrier at sea level, as well as the first female Japanese Olympic champion in speed skating.^[7]

Records

Personal records

Event	Result	Date	Location	Notes
Personal records^[8]
Speed skating
500 m	36.47	9 March 2019	Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City
500 m (sea level)	36.94	18 February 2018	Gangneung Oval, Gangneung	Current sea-level world best, current Olympic record.^[9]
2×500 m	73.55	26 February 2017	Olympic Oval, Calgary	Current world record.^[10]
1000 m	1:11.77	9 March 2019	Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City
1500 m	1:59.03	20 February 2009	Harbin, China	Current Universiade record.
Team sprint	1:26.82	14 November 2015	Olympic Oval, Calgary	Former world record.^[11]^[12]
Sprint comb.	146.390	25–26 February 2017	Olympic Oval, Calgary	Current world record.^[3]

World records

Event	Result	Date	Location	Notes
World records^[11]
Speed skating
1000 m	1:12.09	10 December 2017	Utah Olympic Oval, Salt Lake City	World record until beaten by Brittany Bowe on 9 March 2019.^[4]

Olympic records

Event	Result	Date	Location	Notes
Olympic records
Speed skating
500 m	36.94	18 February 2018	Gangneung Oval, Gangneung	Current Olympic record.^[5]

References

^ "Kodaira captures women's 500-meter title at world championships". The Japan Times. 10 February 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2017..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output .citation qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-maintdisplay:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em

^ "ISU RESULTS". www.isuresults.eu. Retrieved 20 February 2018.

^ ^a^b "Evolution of the world record Sprint combination Women". www.speedskatingstats.com. Retrieved 28 April 2017.

^ ^a^b "Evolution of the world record 1000 meters Women". www.speedskatingstats.com. Retrieved 11 March 2019.

^ ^a^b "Olympic Records". SpeedskatingResults.com. Retrieved 11 March 2019.

^ "National Records – Japan (JPN)". www.speedskatingresults.com. Retrieved 11 March 2019.

^ Harris, Beth (18 February 2018), "Japan's Nao Kodaira wins 500-meter speedskating gold over South Korea's Lee Sang-hwa", Chicago Tribune

^ "Nao Kodaira". www.speedskatingresults.com. Retrieved 11 March 2019.

^ "PYEONGCHANG SPEED SKATING LADIES' 500M". IOC. Retrieved 28 August 2018.

^ "Speed Skating – Records – Historical World Record 2 x 500m – Ladies". ISU. 26 February 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2017.

^ ^a^b "Nao Kodaira". www.speedskatingstats.com. Retrieved 11 March 2019.

^ "ISU World Cup Speed Skating Calgary – Result Team Sprint Ladies". ISU. 1 December 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2018.

External links

Nao Kodaira at the International Skating Union

Nao Kodaira at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com

Records
Preceded by Heather Bergsma	Women's sprint combination speed skating world record 26 February 2017 – present	Succeeded by Current holder
Preceded by Brittany Bowe	Women's 1000 m speed skating world record 10 December 2017 – 9 March 2019	Succeeded by Brittany Bowe