# Kaoruko Wada

Kaoruko Wada (和田薫子, Wada Kaoruko, born May 13, 2009) is a Japanese figure skater. She is the 2024–25 Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist, 2024 JGP Czech Republic champion, the 2024 JGP Poland silver medalist, and the 2024–25 Japanese Junior national silver medalist.

## Personal life

Wada was born on May 13, 2009, in Nagoya, Japan. She is currently a student at Nagoya Municipal Maezu Junior High School.

## Career
### Early career

Wada began figure skating in 2014 at the age of five after watching Mao Asada compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics and subsequently getting Asada's autograph. Soon after beginning to skate, she began training under Machiko Yamada, who had previously coached Asada during the early years of her career.
On the basic novice level, Wada finished twenty-fourth at the 2018–19 Japan Novice B Championships and the following year, finished fourth at the 2019–20 Japan Novice B Championships.
As an advanced novice skater, she placed sixth at the 2020–21 Japan Novice A Championships and won the silver at the 2021–22 Japan Novice A Championships. Following the latter event, Wada competed at the 2021–22 Japan Junior Championships, where she finished eleventh.
During the subsequent seasons, Wada would finish tenth at the 2022–23 Japan Junior Championships and thirteenth at the 2023–24 Japan Junior Championships.

### 2024–25 season

Making her international debut on the 2024–25 ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, Wada unexpectedly took gold at 2024 JGP Czech Republic, defeating reigning World Junior bronze medalist Rena Uezono. Following the event, she said, "I didn't expect to win this title, and I enjoyed performing the short program and the free skating. It was amazing. I found some room to improve through this competition, so I will practice more and I want to enjoy performing more and show better performances to the audience." Wada would go on to take silver behind reigning World Junior champion Mao Shimada at 2024 JGP Poland. With these results, Wada qualified for the 2024–25 Junior Grand Prix Final.
In late November, Wada competed at the 2024–25 Japan Junior Championships, where she won the silver medal. Weeks later, Wada competed at the JGP Final in Grenoble, France. She placed second in both the short program and free skate, winning the silver medal overall and sharing the podium with fellow Japanese skaters, Mao Shimada and Ami Nakai. Wada expressed delight at this result, saying that this "was my first participation in the JGP final but Ami and Mao helped me a lot. This is why I think it was possible to achieve this result as a team." Two weeks later, Wada made her senior level debut at the 2024–25 Japan Championships, where she finished in tenth place.
Wada finished her season at the 2025 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, where she placed fifth in the short program, less than three points back of third place. During the free skate, despite landing all her jumps, the judges determined that five of those jumps were landed on the quarter and two other jumps were underrotated. As a result, Wada placed ninth in the free skate segment and dropped to eighth place overall. Following the event, she said, "There were some things I was a bit unsure about in terms of my score, but I was very satisfied with my performance itself, so I’m glad."

## Programs

| Season | Short program | Free skating | Exhibition |
| 2024–2025 | How Does a Moment Last Forever by Tim Rice & Alan Menken performed by Céline Dion choreo. by Noriko Sato | Titanic Never An Absolution Southampton by James Horner Titanic Symphony by Richard Clayderman Hard to Starboard by James Horner choreo. by Kenji Miyamoto | Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing (from Sing) performed by Tori Kelly |
| 2023–2024 | How Does a Moment Last Forever by Tim Rice & Alan Menken performed by Céline Dion choreo. by Noriko Sato | Sing For Me by Tarja, Kid Crazy, Christel Sundberg, & Tracy Lipp choreo. by Kenji Miyamoto | |
| 2022–2023 | Reflection Steps Moving by Secret Garden choreo. by Akiko Suzuki | Masquerade Waltz by Aram Khachaturian choreo. by Mihoko Higuchi, Yuko Hongo, & Machiko Yamada | |

## Competitive highlights

International: Junior :
| Event | 21–22 | 22–23 | 23–24 | 24–25 |
| Junior Worlds | | | | 8th |
| JGP Final | | | | 2nd |
| JGP Czech Republic | | | | 1st |
| JGP Poland | | | | 2nd |
| National |||||
| Japan | | | | 10th |
| Japan Junior | 11th | 10th | 13th | 2nd |

## Detailed results

ISU personal best scores in the +5/-5 GOE System :
| Segment | Type | Score | Event |
| Total | TSS | 198.22 | 2024 JGP Poland |
| Short program | TSS | 70.58 | 2024 JGP Poland |
| Short program | TES | 40.65 | 2024 JGP Poland |
| Short program | PCS | 29.93 | 2024 JGP Poland |
| Free skating | TSS | 127.64 | 2024 JGP Poland |
| Free skating | TES | 68.40 | 2024 JGP Czech Republic |
| Free skating | PCS | 59.54 | 2024 JGP Poland |

### Senior level

2024–25 season :
| Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
| December 19–22, 2024 | 2024–25 Japan Championships | 10 66.70 | 8 128.93 | 10 195.63 |

### Junior level

Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.
2024–25 season :
| Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
| February 25–March 2, 2025 | 2025 World Junior Championships | 5 64.35 | 9 117.30 | 8 181.65 |
| December 5–8, 2024 | 2024–25 JGP Final | 2 67.77 | 2 123.98 | 2 191.75 |
| November 15–17, 2024 | 2024–25 Japan Junior Championships | 2 66.40 | 4 123.77 | 2 190.17 |
| September 25–28, 2024 | 2024 JGP Poland | 2 70.58 | 2 127.64 | 2 198.22 |
| September 4–9, 2024 | 2024 JGP Czech Republic | 1 67.21 | 1 126.93 | 1 194.14 |
| 2023–24 season ||||||
| Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
| November 17–19, 2023 | 2023–24 Japan Junior Championships | 7 60.26 | 15 97.61 | 13 157.87 |
| 2022–23 season ||||||
| Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
| November 25–27, 2022 | 2022–23 Japan Junior Championships | 9 57.37 | 10 101.21 | 10 158.58 |
| 2021–22 season ||||||
| Date | Event | SP | FS | Total |
| November 19–21, 2021 | 2021–22 Japan Junior Championships | 12 52.89 | 9 103.88 | 11 156.77 |