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Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) pictured during a press conference inTokyo (JPN) @GettyImages

Japanese Ice Dance Champions Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi that opened new doors in the sport have retired from competitive skating. The popular dance team announced their decision first on their Instagram account.

“We’ve discussed a lot and decided to retire from competing”

Takahashi said in a video message.

“The truth is that I had already told Kana after the Four Continents Championships that I wanted to retire. However, we didn't want to let it show at the World Championships and perform as usual, so we decided to make it public after the World Championships" 

Takahashi shared at a press conference in Tokyo on May 2.

Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) pictured during a press conference inTokyo (JPN) @GettyImages

"For me, a new phase in my life begins now.”

The 37-year-old feels that he has reached his physical limits, especially as he is suffering from an injury to his right knee that made training harder.

“I don't necessarily feel it during performance, but on a competition level, especially during training this season, I've noticed that I can't keep up with my abilities. I want to give more, but my body can't keep up. I've noticed that this season. If I continued now, I probably wouldn't develop any further. That's what I told Kana after the Four Continents Championships.”

Kana Muramoto & Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) compete during the 2023 ISU Four Continents Championships in Colorado Spring (USA) @ISU

“In ice dance, you bend your knees more than in single skating, and when I straighten up, I lose the strength in my right knee, so I couldn't bend down very well and mostly bent down on my left knee.” 

“At the end of the day, I couldn't practice properly because of this and I was in pain. Sometimes I would wake up in the morning and have so much pain that I couldn't move my leg. There were days when we wanted to practice the lifts but it wasn't possible, we often couldn't plan ahead and Kana was very patient. To be honest, I would have liked to continue competing in this discipline if I hadn't had the problem with my right knee.”

Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) compete during the 2023 ISU World Championships in Saitama (JPN) @ISU

Muramoto does not want to continue her career with another partner.

“I don't feel a physical limit yet, but I feel that there is no better partner and I still want to put together many more great programs with Dai.” the 30-year-old noted.

“Looking for a new partner was therefore not an option for me, so I decided for myself that this World Championship would also be my last. We were able to leave the last two competitions with a great result, so I am very happy. We have been able to achieve what I set out to do, to do a program that will be remembered. I am looking forward to my next stage.”

Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) compete during the ISU World Championships in Saitama (JPN) @ISU

Muramoto/Takahashi plan to continue to perform in ice shows and Takahashi has already produced the show “Ice Explosion”. He aims to continue to work in this direction. Muramoto would like to explore other things outside skating as well as she focused on the sport the past 25 years.

Muramoto/Takahashi are a unique Ice Dance team in many ways and they have made Figure Skating history. They became the first Japanese Ice Dancers to win a silver medal at an ISU Championship when they came second at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in 2022. They achieved success in a relatively short time and under difficult circumstances.

As a Single Skater, Takahashi won the ISU World title in 2010, the ISU Four Continents title in 2008 and 2011 and Olympic bronze in 2010. He is the first ISU World Champion Single Skater to make a comeback in Ice Dance. And he did so coming out of retirement. He retired in 2014 and came back as a Single Skater in 2018 before switching to Ice Dance in 2020.

Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) celebrates during the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships in Torino (ITA) @GettyImages

Muramoto on the other hand looks back at a long Ice Dance career. She is a 2018 Olympian and the 2018 ISU Four Continents bronze medalist with her former partner, the late Chris Reed, but she took a break of two years before teaming up with Takahashi.

By teaming up at a late stage of their skating careers and Takahashi even switching disciplines when he was in his mid-thirties, the athletes proved that it is not too late to start something new later in your career and that older Skaters can be very successful. On top of everything, the Japanese started out during the pandemic and had to rely mostly on online coaching most of the time in the first year of their partnership.

In an earlier interview with the ISU, Muramoto pointed out how talented her partner is and that he brought many skills into their Ice Dance partnership.

“I know it is a completely different discipline, ice dance and singles are totally different, but he has the musicality and the performance level and that really helped where we are at. He has something special, I think everyone knows that.”

The couple hopes to promote the development of Ice Dance in Japan.

“I think Daisuke changing to ice dance definitely shows that anything is possible. He also said a very interesting thing to the young skaters - just try pairs and ice dance and see what interests you the most. I think he definitely proved to the world, at any age, you can try whatever you want to try. In Japan I can feel that everyone wants to try or that they are interested in, but they don't know where to start or they don't have the opportunity to. Definitely I think Dai opened that door.” 

Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi (JPN) skate during the 2023 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama (JPN) @ISU

For Takahashi, the message to other Skaters is that it is all about the love for Figure Skating.

“You can show how much you love to skate and perform and just (love) figure skating (in general), not singles, couples, ice dance, just skating.”