Sara Takanashi

Okay, I'll just say it: Sara Takanashi is one of the most absurdly gifted athletes Japan has ever produced, and somehow she's still kind of slept on outside the ski-jumping bubble. Picture this tiny 152cm person standing on a ramp the size of a building, and instead of getting blown away she launches off and out-flies a whole field of giants—she literally holds the record for most World Cup wins of anyone, man or woman. That's bananas. What gets me, though, is the contrast: ferocious focus the second she's on the hill, then this playful girl on Instagram who's clearly obsessed with makeup and fashion. When Beijing went sideways with that suit disqualification, my heart broke for her. The fact that she kept flying after all that? Pure steel. Respect.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Sara Takanashi is a Japanese professional ski jumper born on October 8, 1996, in Kamikawa, Hokkaido, Japan. She began ski jumping in the second grade of elementary school under her father's guidance and won her first Continental Cup title in 2011 as the youngest female winner in history. She has claimed the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup overall title four times and earned a bronze medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, going on to record 63 World Cup victories and 113 podium finishes — the most of any ski jumper, male or female.

Name (English)

Sara Takanashi

Name (Japanese)

髙梨沙羅

Reading

たかなし さら

Born

October 8, 1996 (age 30)

Origin

Kamikawa, Hokkaido, Japan

Height

152 cm

Occupation

Ski Jumper / Athlete

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Rat

Blood type

A

Agency

Kuraray

Active years

2011–present

Elementary school

Kamikawa Municipal Kamikawa Elementary School

Junior high

Kamikawa Municipal Kamikawa Junior High School

High school

Grace Mountain International School

University

Nippon Sport Science University

Debut

2011 — Won the Continental Cup as the youngest female winner in FIS history

Awards & achievements

• 2013 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup Overall (youngest ever, age 16)
• 2014 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup Overall (2nd title)
• 2016 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup Overall (3rd title)
• 2017 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup Overall (4th title)
• 2017 Holmenkollen Medal
• 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics — Women's Normal Hill Individual Bronze Medal

Timeline

1. 2004Began ski jumping in second grade of elementary school
2. 2011Won the Continental Cup as the youngest female winner in FIS history
3. 2011Made her FIS Ski Jumping World Cup debut (5th at Lillehammer on December 3)
4. 2013Won World Cup Overall title (youngest ever); claimed silver in Normal Hill and gold in Mixed Team at the World Championships
5. 2014Finished 4th in Women's Normal Hill at the Sochi Winter Olympics; won World Cup Overall for the second consecutive year
6. 2016Won FIS Ski Jumping World Cup Overall for the third time
7. 2017Won FIS Ski Jumping World Cup Overall for the fourth time; received the Holmenkollen Medal
8. 2018Won bronze medal in Women's Normal Hill Individual at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics
9. 2022Disqualified from the Mixed Team event at the Beijing Winter Olympics for a suit violation
10. 2022Reached 63 World Cup victories, the all-time record across men and women

Hobbies

• Makeup
• Fashion
• Ballet (practiced during elementary and junior high school years)

Specialties

• Ski Jumping
• Ballet

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://www.saratakanashi.com/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/sara.takanashi/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E6%A2%A8%E6%B2%99%E7%BE%85
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q467082

Tags

• Ski Jumping
• Kamikawa, Hokkaido
• Kuraray
• All-time World Cup wins record
• PyeongChang Olympics Bronze Medal
• Holmenkollen Medal
• Women's Ski Jumping

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.