page_title: Kaori Sakamoto
section_title: 2017–2018 season: Olympic season and Four Continents champion
hierarchical_section_title: Kaori Sakamoto / Career / 2017–2018 season: Olympic season and Four Continents champion
caption_attribution_description: English: SAKAMOTO Kaori JPN – 6th Place
context_page_description: Kaori Sakamoto is a Japanese figure skater. She is the 2018 Four Continents champion, a two-time Skate America silver medalist, the 2018 Grand Prix of Helsinki bronze medalist, the 2018 Japanese national champion, and the 2017 Japanese national silver medalist. She placed 6th at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
  Earlier in her career, Sakamoto won bronze medals at the 2017 World Junior Championships and at the 2016 Junior Grand Prix Final.
  Sakamoto is currently the fifth highest ranked ladies' singles skater in world by the International Skating Union following the 2019-20 figure skating season.
context_section_description: Sakamoto started her first full senior season at the 2017 Asian Figure Skating Trophy, placing first in both segments to take the gold. At the 2017 U.S Classic, she placed fifth in the short program and 4th in the free skate to place fourth overall, behind compatriot and gold medalist Marin Honda. Making her senior Grand Prix debut, she finished 5th at the 2017 Rostelecom Cup after placing fourth in the short program and fifth in the free skate. At the 2017 Skate America, she scored new personal best scores for both segments of the competition; she placed second in both the short program and free skate and won the silver medal overall behind teammate Satoko Miyahara.
  At the 2017-18 Japan Figure Skating Championships, Sakamoto won the short program. In the free skate, she placed fourth and won the silver medal, her first senior national medal. Following the competition, the Japan Skating Federation named Sakamoto in Japan's team to the 2018 Winter Olympics, alongside Satoko Miyahara. Sakamoto was named in Japan's team to the 2018 Four Continents Championships with Miyahara and training-mate Mai Mihara. She was also selected as the first alternate for the 2018 World Championships, behind Miyahara and Wakaba Higuchi.
  At the 2018 Four Continents Championships, Sakamoto placed second in the short program with a new personal best score, behind teammate Satoko Miyahara. Sakamoto won the free skate with another personal best score, and won the championship, leading a Japanese sweep of the podium. 
  Sakamoto competed in the ladies' free skating portion of the Team Event at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She placed fifth individually, and fifth overall within Team Japan. In the ladies' singles competition, Sakamoto skated a new personal best short program and was fifth going into the free skate. In the free skate, Sakamoto made minor mistakes, but still was able to post the sixth highest free skating score of the event, and ended in sixth place overall.
  Post-Olympics, Sakamoto competed at the 2018 Coupe du Printemps. In the short program, she placed first. In the free skate, she fell on the second jump of a planned double axel-triple toe loop-double toe loop combination, and doubled a planned triple loop to place second in the segment. She ended the competition second overall behind compatriot Mai Mihara.
caption: Sakamoto at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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