Miku Makita Explained

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

Season	Rhythm dance	Free dance
2022–2023	Quizás, Quizás, Quizás Salomé	Someone To Say (Reprise) Someone To Say Madly
2021–2022	Leave the Door Open September	Tangosain Adiós Nonino
2020–2021	I Can Hear the Bells You Can't Stop the Beat	Love Is Worth Fighting For
2019–2020	I Can Hear the Bells You Can't Stop the Beat	Don't Know How to Love You I'll Take Care of You
2018–2019	El Huracán Tus Ojos de Cielo	First Date Rain

Competitive highlights

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

With Gunara

International
Event	16–17	17–18	18–19	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23
align=left								WD
align=left								WD
International: Junior
align=left					8th
align=left					5th
align=left				8th
align=left	France I						bgcolor=silver	2nd
align=left	France II						WD
align=left					4th
align=left					4th
align=left					5th
align=left			3rd N
align=left				bgcolor=silver	2nd	6th
National
align=left			bgcolor=silver	2nd N	9th J		C	3rd J	8th
align=left	SC Challenge	bgcolor=gold	1st P	bgcolor=gold	1st N	8th J	3rd J	bgcolor=silver	2nd J	WD
Team events
align=left					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.

Detailed results

ISU Personal Bests highlighted in bold.

With Gunara

Junior results

2021–22 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
January 6–12, 2022	2022 Canadian Championships	align=center	3 65.88	align=center	3 97.12	align=center bgcolor=cc9966	3 163.00
August 18–21, 2021	2021 JGP France I	align=center	2 57.41	align=center	2 91.98	align=center bgcolor=silver	2 149.39
2020–21 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
January 8–17, 2021	2021 Skate Canada Challenge	align=center	2 66.25	align=center	2 99.92	align=center bgcolor=silver	2 166.17
2019–20 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
March 2–8, 2020	2020 World Junior Championships	align=center	10 60.87	align=center	10 92.33	align=center	8 153.20
February 3–9, 2020	2020 Bavarian Open	align=center	5 57.27	align=center	4 91.98	align=center	5 149.25
January 10–15, 2020	2020 Winter Youth Olympics – Team	align=center	–	align=center	5 89.87	align=center	8T/5P
January 10–15, 2020	2020 Winter Youth Olympics	align=center	4 58.47	align=center	6 90.42	align=center	5 148.89
September 18–21, 2019	2019 JGP Poland	align=center	4 62.25	align=center	4 91.86	align=center	4 154.11
August 28–31, 2019	2019 JGP United States	align=center	3 61.32	align=center	4 88.31	align=center	4 149.63
Jul. 30 – Aug. 2, 2019	2019 Lake Placid Ice Dance International	align=center	6 51.68	align=center	5 78.38	align=center	6 130.06
2018–19 season
Date	Event	RD	FD	Total
January 13–20, 2019	2019 Canadian Championships	align=center	8 55.53	align=center	9 83.78	align=center	9 139.31
September 12–15, 2018	2018 JGP Canada	align=center	8 46.49	align=center	7 81.31	align=center	8 127.80
July 24–27, 2018	2018 Lake Placid Ice Dance International	align=center	2 50.94	align=center	1 78.70	align=center bgcolor=silver	2 129.64

Novice results

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2017–18 season
Date	Event	PD1	PD2	FD	Total
February 2–4, 2018	2018 Egna Dance Trophy	align=center	2 13.30	align=center	2 16.01	align=center	3 54.43	align=center bgcolor=cc9966	3 83.74
January 8–14, 2018	2018 Canadian Championships	align=center	1 16.19	align=center	6 12.85	align=center	2 66.04	align=center bgcolor=silver	2 95.08