Mana Kawabe

Kawabe began skating in 2009, after being inspired by fellow Nagoya native Mao Asada.[3][4] She was coached by Hiroshi Nagakubo, Yoriko Naruse, Miho Kawaume, and Yuko Hongo at Howa Sports Land in Nagoya until Nagakubo's retirement in 2017.[4] Kawabe then switched to her current coaches, Mie Hamada, Yamato Tamura, Haruko Okamoto, and Cathy Reed, and moved to train with them in Takatsuki.[5]

Kawabe is the 2015–16 Japanese national novice B silver medalist. On the advanced novice level internationally, she is the 2017 Coupe du Printemps and 2017 Asian Open Trophy champion.[6] Kawabe did not qualify for the 2018–19 Japan Junior Championships, and competed with an injury for much of the season.[4]

Kawabe made her junior international debut at 2019 JGP United States, placing fifth. She then improved to fourth at 2019 JGP Croatia. In October 2019, Kawabe won Kinki Regionals ahead of Moa Iwano and Riko Takino, before winning Western Sectionals in November, ahead of Nana Araki and Hanna Yoshida.[7]

Kawabe at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics

At the 2019–20 Japan Junior Championships, Kawabe led Tomoe Kawabata and Rino Matsuike in the short program by over a point.[7] She then landed her first officially ratified triple axel in the free skate and completed eight clean triple jumps in total to take the title over Kawabata and Yoshida by nearly fifteen points.[5] Kawabe told media afterwards: "This is unbelievable. I didn’t think I could win."[8] As junior national champion, she was named to represent Japan at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics and the 2020 World Junior Championships.[5] Kawabe was also invited to compete in the senior division at the 2019–20 Japan Championships, alongside the rest of the top six finishers in the junior division.

Kawabe struggled in both the short program and the free skating at 2019–20 Japan Championships to finish thirteenth overall.[2] However, she successfully landed her opening triple axel in the free skating and said her "satisfaction was about 65%."[9]

At the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in January, Kawabe set personal bests in all segments, but finished fourth overall behind You Young of South Korea and Russians Ksenia Sinitsyna and Anna Frolova. She expressed disappointment at her mistakes on her triple axel and her triple lutz.[10] Kawabe was the only member of the Japanese team not drawn for the team event.

Kawabe skated a clean short program to place eighth at the 2020 World Junior Championships, but made several mistakes in the free skating to drop to eleventh overall.[11]