Ami Nakai

Ami Nakai (中井 亜美) is a Japanese figure skater. She is the 2023 World Junior bronze medalist, a three-time gold medalist on the ISU Junior Grand Prix (at the 2022 JGP Poland II, the 2023 JGP Thailand, and the 2023 JGP Turkey), and the 2022–23 Japanese junior bronze medalist.

Personal life
Nakai was born on April 27, 2008 in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

As a young child, she practiced rhythmic gymnastics before ultimately switching to figure skating.

Nakai currently attends Ichikawa Municipal Junior High School in Ichikawa, Chiba.

Career
Nakai began skating in 2013 at the age of five after being inspired by watching Mao Asada skate on TV. She originally trained at the Ibis SC in Niigata under coaches, Kousuke Watabe and Izumi Watabe.

As the 2018 Japanese national novice B champion, she was invited to skate in the gala at the 2019 World Team Trophy.

In spring 2021, Nakai moved with her mother from her hometown of Niigata, Niigata Prefecture to Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture so that Nakai could train at the MF Figure Skating Academy, while her father remained in Niigata due to his work. Kensuke Nakaniwa, Makoto Nakata, Momoe Nagumo, Aya Tanoue, and Akane Seo became Nakai's new coaching team.

2021–22 season
Nakai placed seventh at the 2021–22 Japan Junior National Championships but was invited to compete at the 2021–22 Japan Senior National Championships because the junior champion Mao Shimada was still a novice skater. She popped her planned triple Axel in the short program and struggled on the landing of the triple Lutz, finishing in twenty-seventh and not advancing to the final.

Nakai was sent to 2022 Coupe du Printemps to compete at the junior category. She won and became the twentieth woman to land a triple Axel in international competition.

2022–23 season
In September 2022, Nakai debuted on the Junior Grand Prix circuit at the 2022 JGP Latvia in Riga. She landed all her jumps cleanly in her short program and placed third with 63.87 points. Nakai attempted a triple Axel but was marked as under-rotated during the free skate. She popped two jumps and finished third overall. At the second of two Polish Junior Grand Prixes held in Gdańsk, she won the gold medal and qualified to the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final. Nakai landed a clean triple Axel in the free skate and said afterward that she hoped to do two in the free skate at the Final.

Fourth in the short program at the 2022–23 Japan Junior Championships, Nakai landed a triple Axel in the free skate and made only one jumping error, a fall on her triple loop. She placed third in that segment, moving up to take the bronze medal. Two weeks later, at the Junior Grand Prix Final, Nakai finished in fourth place, 1.16 points behind bronze medalist Kim Chae-yeon of South Korea. Despite narrowly missing the podium, she described the Final as "a dream stage."

Nakai appeared at her second senior Japan Championships, finishing eighth in the short program. She finished fourth in the free skate, successfully landing two triple Axel jumps, and rising to fourth place overall. She said she was "happy to have challenged two Axels on this big stage, and landed them both! It's the first time I have been able to land both in the same program." Nakai was assigned to Japan's second berth at the 2023 World Junior Championships, alongside Shimada.

Competing at the World Junior Championships in Calgary, Nakai was third in the short program with a clean skate. With a score of 67.28, she finished 3.96 points back of second-place Shin Ji-a of South Korea, and 3.31 points ahead of Kim Yu-jae in fourth. Nakai fell on her triple Axel attempt at the beginning of the free skate, but delivered the rest of the program cleanly, finishing third in that segment as well and winning the bronze medal.

2023–24 season
Nakai began the season by competing on the Junior Grand Prix at the 2023 JGP Thailand, skating a clean short program to lead the segment. In the free skate she doubled her planned triple Axel and as a result performed too many double Axels in the segment, in violation of the Zayak rule, but still finished first in that segment as well and won the gold medal. She secured another gold medal at the 2023 JGP Turkey in Istanbul, despite struggling with jump combinations in the free skate, which she said left her "a little bit disappointed," but adding she was "happy to be in first place." Her results qualified her for her second Junior Grand Prix Final.

Dealing with a back injury with painkiller and injections, Nakai withdrew from the domestic sectionals competition in early November. Despite this, she was considered a podium contender heading into the 2023–24 Japan Junior Championships. After falling and failing to executive a jump combination in the short program, she finished fourteenth in that segment. She was tenth in the free skate, and rose to tenth overall, as a result missing qualification for both the senior national championships and the Japanese team for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics.

Nakai next appeared at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Beijing, placing fourth in the short program. In the free skate she fell on her triple Axel, but landed six other triple jumps. She was fifth in that segment, and came fifth overall. Nakai explained that she "thought it would be the last competition of the season, so a part of me was nervous."

Detailed results
Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.

Small medals for short and free programs awarded only at ISU Championships.