is a Japanese professional

rock climber Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in guidebooks, and ...

, sport climber and boulderer. She participates in both bouldering and

lead climbing Lead climbing (or leading) is a technique in rock climbing where the 'lead climber' Glossary of climbing terms#clip in, clips their rope to the climbing protection as they ascend a pitch (climbing), pitch of the climbing route, while their 'seco ...

competitions. She won the IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in lead and bouldering events in 2016, as well as Bouldering Japan Cup in 2017. She participated in combined and

speed In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

events at the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games (), and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, were a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 August to 2 September 201 ...

Biography

Ito was born on 25 April 2002, in

Morioka is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 August 2023, the city had an estimated population of 283,981 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of t ...

, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. She started climbing in her third year of elementary school, encouraged by her father who did sport climbing as a hobby. Her talent was apparent from early on; on her first day of climbing, she reportedly surprised her father by climbing 15 meters up high without stopping, despite not having had any prior climbing experience. She started taking part in public tournaments in 2014, when she came in second place at the 17th Junior Olympic Cup in the under-Youth B age group in

. In 2015, she achieved victory in the Japan Youth Championships lead event (under-Youth B age group), and the All Japan Climbing Youth Championships Bouldering Tournament (Youth C). In the same year, she also won both the lead and bouldering events (Youth C) while representing Japan in the IFSC Climbing Asian Youth Championships in

Putrajaya Putrajaya (), officially the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (), is the administrative centre of Malaysia. The Seat of government, seat of the Government of Malaysia, federal government of Malaysia was moved in 1999 from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajay ...

, Malaysia. In 2016, she entered the All Japan Climbing Championships Lead Tournament, where she came 3rd in the girls' senior category, and won the Youth B category. In November of the same year she represented Japan in the IFSC World Youth Championships in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, China, where she came 2nd in bouldering in the girls' Youth B category. In January 2017, Ito won the 12th Sport Climbing Bouldering Japan Cup, where she faced the more experienced Japanese climbers Akiyo Noguchi and

Miho Nonaka is a Japanese competition climber who specializes in competition bouldering. She is an Olympic silver medalist in sport climbing. Early life Nonaka's father and sister introduced her to climbing when she was nine years old. Climbing caree ...

. At 14 years and 9 months, Ito was youngest person ever to win the Japan Cup, beating Noguchi's 16 years and 3 months at the first Japan Cup in 2005. She was also the youngest athlete to represent Japan in the 2018 Bouldering World Cup, where she placed 8th. In August 2018 she participated in combined and

events at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

, held in

Palembang Palembang (, Palembang: ''Pelémbang'', Mandarin: 巨港 (Jùgǎng), Hokkien: 舊港 (Kū-káng), Jawi: ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River in the ea ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. In 2019 she won the Adidas Rockstars bouldering competition. In this event she defeated Janja Garnbret in the superfinal.

Rankings

IFSC Climbing World Championships The IFSC Climbing World Championships are the biennial (i.e. held once every two years) world championship event for competition climbing that is organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). This event determines the mal ...

IFSC Climbing World Cup The IFSC Climbing World Cup is a series of competition climbing events held during the year at various locations around the world, organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). At each event, the athletes compete in three d ...

IFSC Climbing Asian Championships

IFSC World Youth Championships

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Futaba 2002 births Living people Japanese rock climbers Sport climbers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Japan Boulder climbers Japanese competition climbers 21st-century Japanese sportswomen Sportspeople from Morioka, Iwate