New Era in Japanese Olympic Women’s Curling

Japan is back in Olympic women’s fours curling, with a new team for tens of millions of near-fanatical fans to follow.

Sayaka Yoshimura’s Sapporo crew defeated Norway’s Marianne Roervik 6-5 in the first playoff at the Olympic Qualifying Event to book their tickets to Milano-Cortina 2026 in February.

Tied 4-4 after four ends, the Japanese stole a key point heading into the break. After forcing Norway to a single in six and working a blank, the squad traded singles the rest of the way for a cautious win, which was celebrated with leaps of joy – and a display of “air archery.”

Yoshimura began eclipsing Japan’s two-time Olympic heroines – the Satsuki Fujisawa foursome – over a year ago, through superlative Grand Slam event results.

They clinched their spot as Japan’s rep at Kelowna’s Olympic Qualifying Event (OQE) by winning the Japanese Olympic Trials earlier this year, where Fujisawa placed third.

Fujisawa won Olympic silver four years ago in Beijing, after scoring bronze at PyeongChang 2018.

The loss drops Norway into the second final against the United States (Tabitha Peterson), with the match scheduled for Thursday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time. The winner will represent the final women’s fours team to advance to the Olympic Games.

Japan proved to be the class of the women’s field and finished at 7-1, with their only loss (in an extra-end) coming to Norway to conclude the round robin.

Japan’s men’s team will look to join their compatriots at Cortina, when Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi’s squad takes on China’s Xaoming Xu in the second men’s final.

The first men’s final saw USA’s Daniel Casper upend China by a 9-4 count to claim their nation’s Olympic fours berth.