Japanese snowboarder Tsubaki Miki made history on Sunday after winning gold at this year’s International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Alpine World Ski Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia.
Miki, 19, placed first in the women’s parallel giant slalom event on Sunday, beating Austrian Olympic silver medalist Daniela Ulbing in the process.
“I didn’t think much about it [being the first], but I’ve achieved something I can be proud of,” Miki told reporters, as per The Mainichi Shimbun. “I’m incredibly happy if I could show that at 19 I could take on the world even in a sport whose main battlegrounds are in Europe.”
The Mainichi Shimbun also reported that Miki’s recent win was her country’s “best result in a snowboard alpine event at the worlds or the Olympics.”
Fellow Japanese snowboarder Tomoka Takeuchi, a silver medalist in the 2014 Olympics, also participated in the Sunday event and reached ninth place.
Miki, who represented Japan at last year’s Beijing Olympics, previously won six silver medals at the FIS Snowboarding Junior World Championships, including two in parallel slalom in 2019 and 2020, two in parallel giant slalom in 2020 and 2021 and two in parallel team in 2020 and 2021.
