Miku Makita

Miku Makita
Makita/Gunara at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics
Born	(2003-06-16) June 16, 2003 (age 20) New Westminster, British Columbia
Hometown	Vancouver, British Columbia
Height	1.59 m (5 ft 2+1⁄2 in)
Figure skating career
Country	Canada
Partner	Tyler Gunara
Coach	Aaron Lowe Megan Wing
Skating club	Inlet SC of Port Moody Vancouver Ice Dance Academy
Began skating	2008

Miku Makita (born June 16, 2003) is a Canadian ice dancer. With her skating partner, Tyler Gunara, she is the 2021 JGP France silver medallist and 2022 Canadian Junior bronze medallist. Makita/Gunara finished in the top eight at the 2020 World Junior Championships and competed at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.

Personal life

Makita was born on June 16, 2003, in New Westminster, British Columbia. She has an older brother named Riku. Makita owns a pet cockapoo named Yuzu. As of 2020, she is a high school student in Vancouver. ^[1]

Career

Early career

Makita started skating in 2008. She originally competed in ladies' singles, recording her strongest results at the provincial level and never reached the Canadian Championships. ^[2] Makita competed in both singles and ice dance simultaneously up through 2018.

Makita teamed up with Tyler Gunara in March 2016. ^[3] They train under Aaron Lowe and Megan Wing at the Champs International Skating Centre of BC in Burnaby, British Columbia. During the 2016–17 season, Makita/Gunara won the Skate Canada Challenge pre-novice category with a record score. ^[4] After also winning the provincial title at the 2017 Skate Canada BC/YK Section Awards, they were rewarded with the Ice Dance Youth Promise Award. ^[5]

2017–2018 season

At the 2018 Skate Canada Challenge, Makita/Gunara again won gold, this time in the novice division. They went on to win silver at the 2018 Canadian Championships behind Bashynska/Beaumont, after making a few mistakes and "underperforming" according to their coach. ^[6] Their result earned them their first international assignment, the 2018 Egna Dance Trophy. At the event, Makita/Gunara won their first international medal, advanced novice bronze, behind Russians Lukinskaya/Angelopol and Bashynska/Beaumont. ^[7]

After the Canadian Championships in January and the Egna Dance Trophy in early February, Makita competed in the pre-novice ladies' singles division at the 2018 BC Winter Games at the end of February, finishing fifth overall. ^[2]

2018–2019 season

Makita/Gunara moved up to juniors internationally and opened the season by winning the silver medal at the 2018 Lake Placid Ice Dance International. They earned their first Junior Grand Prix assignment, finishing eighth at 2018 JGP Canada. Makita/Gunara placed eighth at the Skate Canada Challenge. They concluded the season with a ninth-place finish at the 2019 Canadian Championships.

2019–2020 season

Makita/Gunara began their season for the second consecutive year at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International, finishing sixth. On the Junior Grand Prix, they placed fourth at both their events in the United States and Poland.

Makita/Gunara won the junior bronze at the Skate Canada Challenge but did not attend the 2020 Canadian Championships after they were instead sent to the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. At the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, they finished fifth in the ice dance event and eighth (fifth individually) in the team event as part of Team Hope. ^{[8] [9]}

In February, Makita/Gunara finished fifth at the 2020 Bavarian Open. Alongside Bronsard/Bouraguia and D'Alessandro/Waddell, they earned a spot on the 2020 World Junior Championships team due to their being among the top three Canadian junior ice dance teams at the event. ^[10] At Junior Worlds, Makita/Gunara were tenth in both segments but finished eighth overall and were the highest-placing among the Canadian teams. ^[11]

2020–2021 season

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix, where Makita/Gunara would have competed, was cancelled.

With domestic competitions difficult to hold in person, Makita/Gunara competed for the first time at a virtually-held 2021 Skate Canada Challenge, where they placed second in both programs to take the silver medal. The 2021 Canadian Junior Championships were cancelled. ^{[12] [13]}

2021–2022 season

With the resumption of the Junior Grand Prix, Makita/Gunara were assigned to compete in both phases of the French event held on consecutive weeks in Courchevel. In the first week of competition, they finished second in both segments of the competition to take the silver medal, their first JGP medal. They were disappointed by their rhythm dance score after a twizzle error, but Makita said, "we came back in the long and did what we wanted to do." ^[14] They had to withdraw from the second stage of the French event, citing illness. ^[15]

Makita/Gunara won the bronze medal at the 2022 Canadian Junior Championships in Ottawa, in their last season of junior eligibility. ^[16]

2022–2023 season

Having aged out of junior eligibility, Makita/Gunara moved to the senior level for the new season and were named to the Canadian national team for the first time. ^[17] They were scheduled to make their debuts on the Challenger and Grand Prix series at the 2022 CS Nepela Memorial and the 2022 Skate Canada International, but had to withdraw from both due to injury. ^[18] They were eighth at their senior debut at the 2023 Canadian Championships. ^[19]

Programs

With Gunara

Season	Rhythm dance	Free dance
2022–2023 [20]	Rhumba: Quizás, Quizás, Quizás by Osvaldo Farrés Samba: Salomé choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing	Someone To Say (Reprise) performed by Peter Dinklage & Kelvin Harrison Jr. Someone To Say performed by Aaron Dessner & Víkingur Ólafsson Madly performed by Peter Dinklage & Víkingur Ólafsson (from Cyrano ) choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing
2021–2022 [21]	Blues: Leave the Door Open by Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak Swing: September (from Trolls ) by Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, and Earth, Wind & Fire choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing	Tangosain by Luis Bacalov Adiós Nonino by Astor Piazzolla choreo. by Mark Pillay
2020–2021 [1]	Foxtrot: I Can Hear the Bells Swing: You Can't Stop the Beat (from Hairspray ) by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing	Love Is Worth Fighting For by Haley Reinhart choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing
2019–2020 [22]	Foxtrot: I Can Hear the Bells Swing: You Can't Stop the Beat (from Hairspray ) by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing	Don't Know How to Love You by Haley Reinhart, Rob Kleiner, Anders Grahn I'll Take Care of You performed by Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing
2018–2019 [23]	El Huracán by Florindo Sassone y Su Orquesta Tus Ojos de Cielo by Lisandro Adrover choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing	First Date by Edvin Marton Rain by Simply Three choreo. by Aaron Lowe, Megan Wing

Competitive highlights

CS: Challenger Series; GP: Grand Prix; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

With Gunara

International [19]
Event	16–17	17–18	18–19	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23
GP Skate Canada							WD
CS Nepela Memorial							WD
International: Junior [19]
Junior Worlds				8th
Youth Olympics				5th
JGP Canada			8th
JGP France I						2nd
JGP France II						WD
JGP Poland				4th
JGP USA				4th
Bavarian Open				5th
Egna Trophy		3rd N
Lake Placid IDI			2nd	6th
National [19]
Canadian Champ.		2nd N	9th J	[lower-alpha 1]	C	3rd J	8th
SC Challenge	1st P	1st N	8th J	3rd J	2nd J	WD
Team events [19]
Youth Olympics				8th T 5th P
TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew Levels: P = Pre-novice; N = Novice; J = Junior T = Team result; P = Personal result. Medals are awarded for team results only.

1. Event conflict with the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.

Detailed results

ISU Personal Bests highlighted in bold.

With Gunara

Senior results

2022–23 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
January 9–15, 2023	2023 Canadian Championships	8 67.11	8 97.52	8 164.63

Junior results

2021–22 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
January 6–12, 2022	2022 Canadian Championships	3 65.88	3 97.12	3 163.00
August 18–21, 2021	2021 JGP France I	2 57.41	2 91.98	2 149.39
2020–21 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
January 8–17, 2021	2021 Skate Canada Challenge	2 66.25	2 99.92	2 166.17
2019–20 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
March 2–8, 2020	2020 World Junior Championships	10 60.87	10 92.33	8 153.20
February 3–9, 2020	2020 Bavarian Open	5 57.27	4 91.98	5 149.25
January 10–15, 2020	2020 Winter Youth Olympics – Team	–	5 89.87	8T/5P
January 10–15, 2020	2020 Winter Youth Olympics	4 58.47	6 90.42	5 148.89
September 18–21, 2019	2019 JGP Poland	4 62.25	4 91.86	4 154.11
August 28–31, 2019	2019 JGP United States	3 61.32	4 88.31	4 149.63
Jul. 30 – Aug. 2, 2019	2019 Lake Placid Ice Dance International	6 51.68	5 78.38	6 130.06
2018–19 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
January 13–20, 2019	2019 Canadian Championships	8 55.53	9 83.78	9 139.31
September 12–15, 2018	2018 JGP Canada	8 46.49	7 81.31	8 127.80
July 24–27, 2018	2018 Lake Placid Ice Dance International	2 50.94	1 78.70	2 129.64

Novice results

2017–18 season
Date	Event	PD1	PD2	FD	Total
February 2–4, 2018	2018 Egna Dance Trophy	2 13.30	2 16.01	3 54.43	3 83.74
January 8–14, 2018	2018 Canadian Championships	1 16.19	6 12.85	2 66.04	2 95.08

References

1. "Miku MAKITA / Tyler GUNARA: 2020/2021". International Skating Union.
2. Yogesh, Bala (February 25, 2018). "Surrey's Maho Harada settles for silver at B.C. Games". Surrey Now .
3. Olson, Dan (January 10, 2018). "Ice dancers set the table with silver for Burnaby skaters". Burnaby Now .
4. "Makita wins record at 2017 Skate Challenge in Quebec". Tri-City News . December 8, 2016.
5. "Champs' skaters, coach celebrate Skate Canada BC awards". Burnaby Now . May 17, 2017.
6. Olson, Dan (January 18, 2018). "Dancers in fine form at nationals". Burnaby Now .
7. "Champs ice dancers medal in international debut". Burnaby Now . February 22, 2018.
8. Heroux, Devin (January 13, 2020). "Canadian figure skaters motivated by 'valuable' Youth Olympic experience". CBC .
9. "Figure skaters mix it up in glorious send-off". International Olympic Committee . January 15, 2020.
10. "Canadian junior skaters headed to Estonia for the 2020 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships". Skate Canada . March 2, 2020.
11. "Alison Schumacher, two Canadian ice dance teams crack top 10 at World Juniors". Skate Canada . March 7, 2020.
12. Ewing, Lori (January 16, 2021). "Madeline Schizas moves up 3 spots to win virtual Skate Canada Challenge". CBC Sports .
13. "2021 Skate Canada Challenge – Results". Skate Canada.
14. "American Juniors Golden in Courchevel". International Figure Skating. August 23, 2021.
15. "Canada's Kaiya Ruiter wins a bronze medal and captures a second Junior Grand Prix medal". Skate Canada. August 28, 2021.
16. "McIntosh and Mimar break Canadian junior pairs record at 2022 Canadian Tire National Figure Skating Championships". Skate Canada. January 11, 2022.
17. "Skate Canada announces 2022-2023 national team". Skate Canada. July 25, 2022.
18. "The skating world converges in Mississauga for Skate Canada International". Skate Canada. October 24, 2022.
19. "Miku MAKITA / Tyler GUNARA: Competition Results". International Skating Union.
20. "Miku MAKITA / Tyler GUNARA: 2022/2023". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022.
21. "Miku MAKITA / Tyler GUNARA: 2021/2022". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021.
22. "Miku MAKITA / Tyler GUNARA: 2019/2020". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020.
23. "Miku MAKITA / Tyler GUNARA: 2018/2019". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019.

External links

• Miku MAKITA / Tyler GUNARA at the International Skating Union