1. Rinka Watanabe is the 2024 Four Continents bronze medalist, 2022 Skate Canada International champion, 2023 Cup of China silver medalist, 2024 Skate America silver medalist, 2022 CS Lombardia Trophy champion and 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy silver medalist.
Rinka Watanabe began figure skating at the age of three after watching Shizuka Arakawa win gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics on TV.
In 2017, Rinka Watanabe moved to Vancouver, Canada, after her longtime coach, Megumu Seki, moved from Chiba to coach there.
Rinka Watanabe was briefly coached by Mie Hamada until the MF Figure Skating Academy opened in her hometown of Chiba in the spring of 2021.
Rinka Watanabe finished sixth at the Japan Championships, earning international assignments for the second half of the season.
Rinka Watanabe competed in the junior division at the Bavarian Open, winning the silver medal and earning the technical minimums needed for the 2022 World Junior Championships.
Rinka Watanabe then appeared at the Coupe du Printemps at the senior level, winning gold, before placing tenth at the World Junior Championships to conclude the season.
Rinka Watanabe began the season by making her Challenger series debut at the 2022 CS Lombardia Trophy, where she unexpectedly won the gold over reigning World and Japanese champion Kaori Sakamoto.
Rinka Watanabe cleared the 200-point threshold for the first time internationally.
Rinka Watanabe rebounded in the free skate, winning that segment and taking the gold medal.
Rinka Watanabe rallied in the free skate, landing a slightly underrotated triple Axel and placing third in that segment, and rose to fifth overall, 5.05 points behind bronze medalist Sumiyoshi.
Rinka Watanabe finished fourth in the short program after her triple Axel attempt was called a quarter underrotated.
Rinka Watanabe rose to twelfth place after the free skate.
At the World Championships, held on home ice in Saitama, Rinka Watanabe placed fifteenth in the short program, but rose to tenth overall with a seventh-place free skate.
Rinka Watanabe chose as the thematic subject of her free program "the dark times and struggles with injuries" of her junior career.
Rinka Watanabe made only one mistake in the free skate, singling a planned triple Lutz, rising to sixth overall.
Rinka Watanabe finished second in the short program at the 2023 Cup of China despite slight underrotation calls on both parts of her jump combination, setting a new season's best score of 65.09.
Rinka Watanabe was second in the free skate as well, winning the silver medal and finishing only 0.75 points behind gold medalist Hana Yoshida.
Rinka Watanabe finished second in the segment and moved up to third place overall, surpassing Ziegler by 1.02 points for the bronze medal.
Rinka Watanabe began the season with an eighth-place finish at the 2024 CS Lombardia Trophy.
Rinka Watanabe finished in fifth place in the free skate and fell to fifth overall.
Rinka Watanabe said that she was frustrated by her performance, as she had aimed to skate cleanly in both programs, and that she had run out of stamina during the free skate.
Rinka Watanabe then finished the season by winning gold at the 2025 International Challenge Cup.