Olympic champion Fumie Suguri settles in Frisco, welcomes Japan for World Cup

Fumie Suguri is planting roots in Frisco just as North Texas prepares to welcome Japan and the rest of the world for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a sign of how deeply the region’s sports infrastructure is tied to its international ambitions. The two-time Japanese Olympian and five-time Japanese national champion settled in Frisco in December 2025 and now says she wants visiting fans and athletes to experience Dallas the way she did after growing up skating in Alaska.

Suguri’s move carries more weight than celebrity cachet. She is building Kakehashi Dallas, a bilingual Japanese-English short-form video project aimed at helping Japanese visitors find local restaurants, shops and cultural destinations across Dallas-Fort Worth. She is also listed as a board member of the Dallas Japanese Chamber of Commerce, adding another connection between Frisco’s sports growth and the region’s Japanese business community.

The timing lines up with one of the biggest international sports schedules North Texas has ever seen. FIFA says Dallas will host nine World Cup matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, including Japan’s group-stage games against the Netherlands on June 14, 2026, and Sweden on June 25, 2026, plus a semifinal on July 14, 2026. That concentration of matches makes Dallas the busiest host market in the tournament and puts the metroplex at the center of the June and July travel surge.

FIFA also finalized World Cup team base camps on May 25, saying 39 teams will be based in the United States. The governing body said the camps are meant to create a socioeconomic boost in communities outside the 16 host cities, and Dallas host-city materials list FC Dallas’ Toyota Stadium in Frisco and Mansfield Stadiums as base camp sites. For Collin County, that means more than tournament branding. It means training activity, hotel nights, dining traffic and a stronger case that Frisco is becoming a true global sports hub.

Suguri is scheduled to speak June 18, 2026, at the Japan America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth’s annual meeting at the Omni Resort & Spa at PGA Frisco. She will appear alongside Monica Paul, the executive director of the Dallas Sports Commission and president of the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee, one of the local leaders who helped secure Dallas’ nine World Cup matches.