Nozawa Onsen is often called a ski resort, but it has always been much more of a ski village. For a community of around 3,600 people, producing 17 Winter Olympians is remarkable.
That record has grown over generations, through local families, schools and the Nozawa Onsen Ski Club, in a village where skiing has long been part of everyday life.
オリンピックのルーツを持つ村
Nozawa Onsen’s Olympic history stretches back to 1956, when Sugiyama Susumu competed in alpine skiing at Cortina d’Ampezzo. Cross-country skier Sato Kazuo followed, representing Japan at three consecutive Winter Olympics in 1960, 1964 and 1968.
By the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics, several athletes from Nozawa Onsen were competing for Japan, including alpine skiers Katagiri Miyuki, Tomii Sumihiro and Furukawa Toshimasa. Tomii returned to the Olympics four years later at Innsbruck 1976.
One of Nozawa Onsen’s most successful Olympians is Nordic combined skier Kono Takanori. He won team gold at Albertville 1992, followed by individual silver and another team gold at Lillehammer 1994. At the same Games, ski jumper Nishikata Jinya won silver in the team large hill event.
The village continued to send athletes to the Winter Games in the decades that followed. Mori Satoshi competed in Nordic combined at Nagano 1998 and Salt Lake City 2002, while alpine skier Tomii Tsuyoshi represented Japan at Albertville 1992 and Nagano 1998. Freestyle skier Ueno Osamu competed in moguls at Torino 2006, and Manami Mitsuboshi represented Japan in ski halfpipe at Sochi 2014.
Most recently, Nozawa-born ski jumper Maruyama Nozomi returned from Milano Cortina 2026 with two bronze medals, one in the women’s normal hill and another as part of Japan’s mixed team.
Seventeen Olympians from a village of this size is an extraordinary record, but in Nozawa it is also part of a much longer story.
雪の中で育つ
Skiing is woven into winter life here from an early age. Children grow up with the mountain above the village, local ski programmes close at hand and generations of accomplished skiers around them.
The Nozawa Onsen Ski Club has played an important role in that history, creating a pathway for young athletes to develop while keeping skiing firmly rooted in the community.
For visitors, the slopes are the reason to come. For many people who grow up here, they are simply part of home.
How That Tradition Continues
Olympic athletes are the most visible part of Nozawa Onsen’s ski history, but the culture behind them is much broader.
Knowledge is passed between generations. Former competitors remain part of village life. Children learn on the same mountain where earlier generations trained, and winter still revolves around snow, skiing and the routines that come with both.
That continuity helps explain how such a small village has produced so many athletes at the highest level of the sport. It is not the result of a single programme or moment, but decades of participation, coaching, family involvement and access to the mountain.
彼らを育てた村に滞在する
Spend a winter morning in Nozawa Onsen and its relationship with skiing is easy to see. Skis stand outside homes, children head towards the mountain and the village begins moving long before the lifts open.
That is part of what makes Nozawa different. The ski area and the village are not separate experiences. One has grown around the other.
Nozawa Collection offers luxury chalet accommodation in Nozawa Onsen, giving guests a base from which to enjoy both the mountain and the village, and a little of the ski heritage that has shaped this place for generations.
