Riku Miura

With her skating partner, Shoya Ichihashi, she has represented Japan at four ISU Championships. The two finished tenth at the 2018 Four Continents Championships in Taipei, Taiwan, and at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.[1] Their partnership ended in July 2019.[3]

In August 2019, it was announced that Miura had teamed up with Ryuichi Kihara and that the pair would train in Oakville, Ontario at the Skate Oakville Skating Club under Bruno Marcotte, Meagan Duhamel, and Brian Shales.[3][2]

Miura/Kihara made their international competitive debut at 2019 NHK Trophy, where they finished fifth.[4] They were the only pair competing at the 2019–20 Japan Championships, and had two falls in the short program.[5] The free skate proved more successful, allowing them to claim the Japanese national title and assignments to the ISU championships in the second half of the season.[6]

After an eighth-place finish at the 2020 Four Continents Championships, Miura/Kihara were assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal, but these were cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[7]

Miura/Kihara were assigned to compete at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but this event was cancelled as a result of the pandemic.[8] Making their season debut at the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, they placed tenth.[9] They finished the season at the 2021 World Team Trophy, where they finished third in both segments, helping Team Japan to the bronze medal.[10][11][12]

Miura/Kihara spent the period after the World Team Trophy training in Japan and the United States, before returning to Canada in September upon the reopening of the borders. They began their season at the 2021 CS Autumn Classic International, where they won both segments of competition, as well as set new personal bests, to take the gold medal overall.[13]

At their first Grand Prix assignment of the season, the 2021 Skate America, Miura/Kihara again scored new personal bests in both segments of competition, as well as overall. Despite placing third in both the short program and the free skate, due to shifting ordinals from their competitors the team won the silver medal between Russian competitors Tarasova/Morozov in first and Boikova/Kozlovskii in third. Their medal marks the first medal for Japan in the pairs event on the Grand Prix circuit since 2011.[14][15] Competing at the 2021 NHK Trophy at home for their second event, they were third in both programs to take the bronze medal. They finished less than four points behind silver medalists Tarasova/Morozov, a gap more than accounted for by jump and throw errors by Miura. She noted issues in training, and expressed dissatisfaction that she had been unable to fix the problem, but that they were nevertheless satisfied to have achieved their goal of winning a medal.[16]