WINTER NOTE | Sara Takanashi Heading to Her Fourth Olympics – The Meaning of That Fourth Place in Zhangjiakou

WINTER NOTE | On the Road to Milano–Cortina — The night Sara Takanashi’s fourth Olympic Games became virtually secured.

Round 18 of the FIS Women’s Ski Jumping World Cup was held in Zhangjiakou, China. On the HS140 m large hill, swirling winds forced the competition to be decided in a sudden-death “one-jump only” format. Under those difficult conditions, Sara Takanashi (Kuraray) flew 123.5 metres and scored 86.8 points to finish 4th. Just shy of the podium, her jump quietly showed the “body of work” she has been building up this winter.

Zhangjiakou Round 18 – What That Wind-Blown Fourth Place Really Meant

The Zhangjiakou event held on 17 January was also the final selection race for the Japanese women’s team for the Milano–Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Because of strong winds, the second round was cancelled and the standings were decided on the first jump only. Nozomi Maruyama (Kitano Construction) flew 125.5 metres for 94.7 points to take 3rd place and claim back-to-back podiums, with Takanashi right behind her in 4th.

On paper it reads as “another narrow miss of the podium”. But the story behind it is far from negative. Last season was the first in her World Cup career in which she failed to reach the podium even once. She spent that time revisiting her technique from scratch and reworking her approach on the in-run. This winter she has yet to stand on the podium, but she already has two 4th-place and two 5th-place finishes, including another 4th on the large hill in Falun, and is steadily re-establishing herself as a regular in the top group.

Towards a Fourth Olympics – Maruyama, Takanashi, Seto and Ito All “Virtually Assured” of Selection

With the competition in Zhangjiakou, all of the Olympic selection events for women’s ski jumping defined by the Ski Association of Japan have now been completed. The athletes who met the federation’s recommendation criteria are:

• Nozomi Maruyama (Kitano Construction)
• Sara Takanashi (Kuraray)
• Yuka Seto (Okamoto Group)
• Yuki Ito (Tsuchiya Home)

These four are being reported as “virtually certain” to be selected for the Olympic team (the official announcement will come later). For Takanashi, it will be her fourth consecutive Olympic Games since Sochi 2014. Milano–Cortina 2026 will be a milestone Games she enters at the age of 29.

Women’s World Cup 2025–26 – Overall Standings (Outline After Round 18)

This season’s women’s World Cup overall standings have turned into a high-level battle, led in particular by jumpers from Slovenia and Japan. The top positions, and Takanashi’s ranking after Round 18, are as follows.

There was a time when the narrative was “Takanashi keeps on winning and the rest of the world is chasing her.” This season, she stands as one athlete among a new global generation, fighting on equal terms in a very different landscape. Even so, the fact that a legend with 63 wins and 116 World Cup podiums – the most of any ski jumper, male or female – is still firmly inside the world’s top 10 remains something truly special.

“I Want to Show Myself Standing on the Podium” – A New Year’s Vow in a Furisode Kimono

At the start of the year, Takanashi appeared in interviews wearing a colourful furisode kimono and spoke about her goals for Milano–Cortina, declaring that she “wants to show everyone a picture of herself standing on the podium”. Four years have passed since the heartbreak of the mixed team event at Beijing 2022. As she put it herself, “the dots are slowly starting to connect into a line”: the long process of adjusting her technique and resetting her mindset is finally beginning to take shape.

What she carries on her shoulders now is very different from the days when “winning was the default expectation”. And yet, in those New Year interviews, there was a softness in her expression, as if a little of the pressure had finally eased. You could sense a quiet resolve beneath it all – the feeling of “I still want to fly”.

From the Heartbreak of Beijing to “Jumping in Her Own Way”

That night game in Beijing – when she was disqualified for a suit violation in the mixed team event – is etched deeply into the collective memory of fans in Japan. No one was harder on Takanashi than herself. Even so, she chose not to walk away from the ski jumping hill.

She started over from zero with her technique, correcting the slightly backward-leaning in-run position and asking herself, over and over, “What would it take for me to truly believe in my jump again?” That journey was captured in an interview released in the autumn of 2025. There we saw not the record-chasing prodigy of the past, but a 29-year-old athlete who had come to value above all else “jumping in a way that feels true to herself”.

“I want to work hard so I can deliver big jumps.” True to those words, Takanashi has been matching the world’s best in terms of distance this season, even on big hills like Falun and Lahti. There is a real sense that she is slowly but surely stacking up that “last little bit” you cannot read from the results sheet alone.

What to Watch in Sara Takanashi’s Jumps at Milano–Cortina

So what should we be watching for when Takanashi flies in Val di Fiemme at Milano–Cortina? Three points stand out in particular.

• The connection from the in-run into takeoff
  The in-run position, long highlighted as a weakness in recent years, looks far more stable this season. When the timing of her takeoff clicks, the way she explodes off the table – sharp, low and fast – is still among the very best in the world.
• Stability in the air and style points
  At 152 cm, she makes the most of her compact frame with a streamlined, efficient flight position. Even if she lands a touch behind on distance, a clean telemark can bring the kind of style scores that remain one of her great strengths.
• Her place within Japan’s “four-woman line”
  Nozomi Maruyama, Yuka Seto, Yuki Ito and Sara Takanashi – all four now have the ability to fight for Olympic medals. The young Maruyama pulls the team forward, veterans Takanashi and Ito support with experience, and Seto bridges the gap between them. At Milano–Cortina, there will be as much focus on how Japan approaches the Games as a team as on individual results.

Japan will have chances not only in the individual events but also in the mixed team competition. Can the jumper with a record 63 World Cup victories finally finish an Olympics wearing a genuine smile? For Takanashi, Milano–Cortina may become a kind of emotional finale – a Games that is less about numbers and more about the story that led her here.

A “WINTER NOTE” on a Winter Whose Ending We Want to Witness

Under the floodlights of Zhangjiakou, in swirling winds, she flew that fourth-place jump. Ahead of her now lie four straight home competitions in Zao and Sapporo. On those hills where she has so often stood atop the podium, what kind of jumps will she deliver this time? And in Milano–Cortina, what expression will Sara Takanashi wear when she looks up at the winter sky?

Whatever the outcome, for those who know the path she has walked, every jump will carry a special weight. When this winter comes to an end, we hope to be able to say, “From that fourth place, she came all the way here.” As WINTER NOTE, we simply want to be there to witness that single, decisive moment.

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