Kentaro Minagawa
Kentaro Minagawa (Japanese皆川 贤 太郎, Kentaro Minagawa, born 17 May 1977 in Niigata Prefecture ) is a Japanese ski racer. He drives almost exclusively slalom race.
Biography
Minagawa made internationally for the first time at the Junior World Championship in 1996 in high -Ybrig attention to itself, where he won the slalom and fifth in the giant slalom in ninth place.
Since the season 1996/97 he regularly takes part in the World Cup races and has yet been able to place in the top ten eight times. His best result he scored just before the 2006 Winter Olympics in the slalom in Wengen, where he finished fourth.
His good form then he also confirmed in the Olympic competition. With only three hundredths behind the bronze medalist Rainer Schoenfelder Minagawa was fourth. This was the best finish by a Japanese Skirennläufers at the Olympic Games since winning a silver medal by Chiharu Igaya at the Winter Games in 1956.
In June 2009, Minagawa married the freestyle skier Aiko Uemura.
Achievements
Olympic games
- Turin 2006: 4th Slalom
World Championships
- St. Anton 2001: 10 Slalom
Junior World Championships
- Voss 1995: 12 Slalom, Giant Slalom 36
- High -Ybrig 1996: 5 Slalom, 9 Giant Slalom, Super-G 55
World Cup
- 9 finishes among the top ten
Continental Cups
- 4 podiums in the European Cup
- 4 podiums in the Nor- Am Cup, including 3 victories