Japan at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Japan was the host nation for the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. It was the first time that Japan had hosted the Winter Olympic Games, but second time overall after the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. It was also the first Winter Olympic Games held in Asia. The host nation sent 90 athletes, consisting of 70 men and 20 women, along with 20 officers. The flag bearer for the Japanese team, Mineyuki Mashiko did not participate in the game, but instead held the position of team manager.

Japan at the 1972 Winter Olympics
IOC code	JPN
NOC	Japanese Olympic Committee
Website	www.joc.or.jp (in Japanese and English)
in Sapporo
Competitors	90 in 10 sports
Flag bearer	Mineyuki Mashiko
Medals Ranked 11th	Gold 1 Silver 1 Bronze 1 Total 3
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)
1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026

Three Japanese ski jumpers swept the medals in the normal hill event, becoming national heroes. This achievement also made Yukio Kasaya the first gold medalist for Japan at the Winter Olympic Games. He was also the first ever Asian to win a Winter Olympic gold medal.

Medalists

Medal Name Sport Event Date  Gold Yukio Kasaya Ski jumping Men's normal hill February 6  Silver Akitsugu Konno Ski jumping Men's normal hill February 6  Bronze Seiji Aochi Ski jumping Men's normal hill February 6

Medals by sport Sport Total Ski jumping 1 1 1 3 Total 1 1 1 3

Alpine skiing

Main article: Alpine skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Athlete	Event	Race 1		Race 2		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Masahiko Otsue	Downhill					1:59.55	35
Sumihiro Tomii						1:55.34	22
Masayoshi Kashiwagi	Giant Slalom	DSQ	–	–	–	DSQ	–
Masahiko Otsue		1:38.71	34	DSQ	–	DSQ	–
Haruhisa Chiba		1:36.36	26	1:40.87	20	3:17.23	19
Masami Ichimura		1:35.77	22	1:39.57	12	3:15.34	15

Men's slalom

Athlete	Classification		Final
	Time	Rank	Time 1	Rank	Time 2	Rank	Total	Rank
Haruhisa Chiba	1:43.17	1	1:01.25	29	DNF	–	DNF	–
Toshimasa Furukawa	1:46.33	3	?	25	DSQ	–	DSQ	–
Masayoshi Kashiwagi	DNF	–	1:00.19	24	56.42	17	1:56.61	18
Masami Ichimura	1:42.90	1	57.58	13	57.25	18	1:54.83	17

Women

Athlete	Event	Race 1		Race 2		Total
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Emiko Okazaki	Downhill					1:48.85	41
Harue Okitsu						1:45.37	40
Miyuki Katagiri						1:44.10	35
Mitsuyo Nagumo						1:43.07	32
Mitsuyo Nagumo	Giant Slalom					DSQ	–
Emiko Okazaki						1:40.37	32
Miyuki Katagiri						1:39.11	30
Harue Okitsu						1:35.33	22
Miyuki Katagiri	Slalom	DNF	–	–	–	DNF	–
Mitsuyo Nagumo		DNF	–	–	–	DNF	–
Harue Okitsu		50.55	19	50.12	16	1:40.67	16
Emiko Okazaki		50.06	18	49.47	14	1:39.53	13

Biathlon

Main article: Biathlon at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Event	Athlete	Time	Penalties	Adjusted time 1	Rank
20 km	Kazuo Sasakubo	1'19:07.43	9	1'28:07.43	38
	Isao Ono	1'16:26.83	7	1'23:26.83	25
	Shozo Sasaki	1'18:05.54	5	1'23:05.54	23
	Miki Shibuya	1'16:57.27	5	1'21:57.27	17

¹ One minute added per close miss (a hit in the outer ring), two minutes added per complete miss.

Men's 4 x 7.5 km relay

Athletes	Race
	Misses 2	Time	Rank
Isao Ono Shozo Sasaki Miki Shibuya Kazuo Sasakubo	5	1'59:09.48	8

² A penalty loop of 200 metres had to be skied per missed target.

Bobsleigh

Main article: Bobsleigh at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Sled	Athletes	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
			Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
JPN-1	Susumu Esashika Kazumi Abe	Two-man	1:18.13	16	1:16.43	6	1:15.17	14	1:16.86	18	5:06.59	15
JPN-2	Akihiko Suzuki Rikio Sato	Two-man	1:18.98	21	1:18.46	21	1:15.63	16	1:18.84	21	5:11.91	21

Sled	Athletes	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
			Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
JPN-1	Susumu Esashika Kazumi Abe Rikio Sato Yoshiyuki Ichihashi	Four-man	1:11.51	6	1:12.99	15	1:11.42	12	1:12.00	13	4:47.92	12
JPN-2	Toshihisa Nagata Hiroshi Inaba Koichi Sugawara Akihiko Suzuki	Four-man	1:11.51	6	1:12.99	15	DSQ	–	–	–	DSQ	–

Cross-country skiing

Main article: Cross-country skiing at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
15 km	Motoharu Matsumura	50:43.76	51
	Akiyoshi Matsuoka	49:50.72	43
	Kunio Shibata	49:38.95	41
	Hideo Tanifuji	49:06.97	37
30 km	Tomio Okamura	1'47:50.22	47
	Seiji Kudo	1'47:00.40	44
	Hideo Tanifuji	1'45:37.13	37
	Kunio Shibata	1'42:30.83	23
50 km	Motoharu Matsumura	DNF	–
	Seiji Kudo	2'57:42.62	29

Men's 4 × 10 km relay

Athletes	Race
	Time	Rank
Hideo Tanifuji Kunio Shibata Akiyoshi Matsuoka Tomio Okamura	2'13:59.14	10

Women

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
5 km	Akiko Akasaka	19:49.74	43
	Harumi Imai	19:05.73	38
	Tokiko Ozeki	19:00.82	37
	Hiroko Takahashi	18:32.75	34
10 km	Hideko Saito	39:51.61	38
	Harumi Imai	39:33.13	37
	Tokiko Ozeki	38:07.24	33
	Hiroko Takahashi	36:53.84	25

Women's 3 × 5 km relay

Athletes	Race
	Time	Rank
Tokiko Ozeki Hiroko Takahashi Hideko Saito	53:20.75	9

Figure skating

Main article: Figure skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Athlete	CF	FS	Points	Places	Rank
Yutaka Higuchi	16	15	2309.7	140	16

Women

Athlete	CF	FS	Points	Places	Rank
Kazumi Yamashita	10	10	2449.9	93	10

Pairs

Athletes	SP	FS	Points	Places	Rank
Kotoe Nagasawa Hiroshi Nagakubo	16	16	345.5	144	16

Ice hockey

Main article: Ice hockey at the 1972 Winter Olympics

First round

Winners (in bold) entered the Medal Round. Other teams played a consolation round for 7th-11th places.

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Japan	2–8	Czechoslovakia

Consolation round

Rank	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
7	West Germany	4	3	1	0	22	10	6
8	Norway	4	3	1	0	16	14	6
9	Japan	4	2	1	1	17	16	5
10	Switzerland	4	0	2	2	9	16	2
11	Yugoslavia	4	0	3	1	9	17	1

• Japan 3-3 Switzerland
• Japan 3-2 Yugoslavia
• Japan 4-5 Norway
• Japan 7-6 West Germany

Contestants Toshimitsu Otsubo Tsutomu Hanzawa Minoru Misawa Hiroshi Hori Iwao Nakayama Takeshi Akiba Fumio Yamazaki Takashi Tsuburai Minoru Ito Teruyasu Honma Yasushio Tanaka Hideaki Kurokawa Takao Hikigi Koji Iwamoto Isao Kakihara Toru Okajima Yoshio Hoshino Osamu Wakabayashi Hideo Suzuki

Luge

Main article: Luge at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Athlete	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Masatoshi Kobayashi	55.30	32	54.43	25	53.00	19	53.66	27	3:36.39	24
Satoru Arai	54.76	26	55.07	30	53.75	25	53.73	29	3:37.31	26
Masako Eguchi	54.09	15	53.37	12	52.78	18	53.57	25	3:33.81	18
Kazuaki Ichikawa	54.09	15	54.21	22	53.29	22	53.40	22	3:34.99	20

(Men's) Doubles

Athletes	Run 1		Run 2		Total
	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Satoru Arai Masatoshi Kobayashi	44.73	4	44.90	7	1:29.63	4
Masako Eguchi Kazuaki Ichikawa	46.93	19	46.63	18	1:33.56	18

Women

Athlete	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Miyako Kawase	47.93	20	47.31	19	46.72	18	46.14	18	3:08.10	19
Hiroko Shibuya	46.66	14	46.41	13	45.89	8	45.49	12	3:04.45	13
Yuko Otaka	45.21	4	45.65	5	45.39	5	44.73	5	3:00.98	5

Nordic combined

Main article: Nordic combined at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Events:

• normal hill ski jumping (Three jumps, best two counted and shown here.)
• 15 km cross-country skiing

Athlete	Event	Ski Jumping				Cross-country			Total
		Distance 1	Distance 2	Points	Rank	Time	Points	Rank	Points	Rank
Nobutaka Sasaki	Individual	72.5	76.0	190.3	8	54:00.6	169.645	37	359.945	24
Hideki Nakano		82.0	81.0	220.5	1	55:41.2	154.555	39	375.055	13
Yuji Katsuro		74.5	78.0	195.1	6	51:10.9	195.100	18	390.200	5
Kazuo Araya		76.5	77.0	199.7	5	53:29.3	174.340	34	374.040	15

Ski jumping

Main article: Ski jumping at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Athlete	Event	Jump 1		Jump 2		Total
		Distance	Points	Distance	Points	Points	Rank
Takashi Fujisawa	Normal hill	81.0	117.8	68.0	90.0	207.8	23
Akitsugu Konno		82.5	120.2	79.0	114.6	234.8
Seiji Aochi		83.5	123.3	77.5	106.2	229.5
Yukio Kasaya		84.0	126.6	79.0	117.6	244.2
Hiroshi Itagaki	Large hill	90.0	96.0	84.0	87.1	183.1	19
Takashi Fujisawa		95.5	107.2	86.0	89.9	197.1	14
Akitsugu Konno		98.0	109.7	88.5	89.4	199.1	12
Yukio Kasaya		106.0	124.9	85.0	84.5	209.4	7

Speed skating

Main article: Speed skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Men

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
500 m	Keiichi Suzuki	41.28	19
	Norio Hirate	41.08	17
	Takayuki Hida	40.62	13
	Masaki Suzuki	40.35	8
1500 m	Kiyomi Ito	2:11.96	22
	Mutsuhiko Maeda	2:11.09	20
5000 m	Osamu Naito	7:56.97	16
	Kiyomi Ito	7:45.96	13
10,000 m	Osamu Naito	15:52.93	12
	Kiyomi Ito	15:48.17	10

Women

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
500 m	Ryoko Onozawa	46.70	21
	Sachiko Saito	45.35	9
1000 m	Ryoko Onozawa	1:36.99	28
	Sachiko Saito	1:35.12	18
	Emiko Taguchi	1:34.40	15
1500 m	Kaname Ide	2:28.34	18
	Emiko Taguchi	2:28.19	17
	Satomi Koike	2:25.16	11
3000 m	Akiko Aruga	5:22.60	18
	Kaname Ide	5:17.30	16
	Satomi Koike	5:09.21	12

References

• Official Olympic Reports
• International Olympic Committee results database
• Japan Olympic Committee database Archived 2014-02-19 at the Wayback Machine
• Olympic Winter Games 1972, full results by sports-reference.com