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Miku Makita
Makita/Gunara at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics
Born	(2003-06-16) June 16, 2003 (age 21) 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.

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. Makita competed in both singles and ice dance simultaneously up through 2018.

Makita teamed up with Tyler Gunara in March 2016. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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. At Junior Worlds, Makita/Gunara were tenth in both segments but finished eighth overall and were the highest-placing among the Canadian teams.

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.

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." They had to withdraw from the second stage of the French event, citing illness.

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

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. 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. They were eighth at their senior debut at the 2023 Canadian Championships.

Programs

With Gunara

Competitive highlights

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

With Gunara

1. Event conflict with the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.

Detailed results

ISU Personal Bests highlighted in bold.

With Gunara

Senior results

Junior results

Novice results

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

• 2003 births
• Living people
• Canadian female ice dancers
• Figure skaters at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics
• Sportspeople from New Westminster
• 21st-century Canadian sportswomen