In the 2005–06 season, Nobunari Oda emerged as a challenger for the Olympic spot. Oda and Takahashi both had very good Grand Prix seasons. At the 2005–06 Japanese Championships, Oda was declared the winner, and, thus, seemed to have qualified for the one Olympic slot, but his gold medal was quickly taken back, when an error was found in the way scores were calculated in the computer system at the event; Takahashi was awarded the gold. The Japanese Skating Federation split the international assignments, giving Takahashi the Olympic berth and Oda a place at the World Championship. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Takahashi was in a good position after short program, but had a poor free skating and placed 8th overall.