[Full text] “Fortius” Sayaka Yoshimura ″A Challenge with All My Might″ “I hope my 2-year-old son can see how hard I am working.

Finally, the World Final Qualifying Round for the Milan Cortina Olympics will begin on December 6.

It’s a refreshing change today!”

Sayaka Yoshimura, 33, the leader of the curling team “Fortius,” which won the Japan preliminary round this September, showed us a refreshing smile at a ballet studio in the Maruyama area of Sapporo, Hokkaido.

On this day, Yoshimura spent an hour doing ballet stretches, which she has been incorporating into her training menu since ’18. She repeated the stretches to the count of physical coach Shiori Akagawa, the representative of the Maruyama Modern Ballet Company, whom she has studied with since the beginning, while being aware of the range of motion of her five body parts, muscles, and trunk. The students repeat the same steps over and over again, paying attention to all five body ranges of motion, muscles, and trunk.

It makes you sweat, and the sensation is somewhere between ‘painful’ and ‘pleasant.

While in their hometown of Sapporo, the entire team trains together once a week in ballet stretching, but Yoshimura also holds individual sessions in addition to this. This is Yoshimura’s favorite time to check on his own physical condition while recovering and refreshing.

Yoshimura started curling in the fourth grade of elementary school, but was also a member of the basketball team in junior high school and the volleyball team in high school, making him an all-around sportsman. He has repeated numerous stretches in his athletic career, including curling, but “I only knew the orthodox ones,” he says.

I’m a skip (a non-sweep position), so my shoulders and back inevitably get cold and rounded during competitions. When I do that (during the throwing motion), my hip joints don’t open the way I want them to. But after I started stretching with a specific awareness of where I wanted to stretch and move, I was able to get a sense of the whole body working together, and I also feel the importance of taking care of myself off the ice.”

Currently, there are more than 70 countries and regions that are members of the International Curling Federation, but among them, teams that incorporate ballet into their training are quite rare. That is why, when the team was not winning, there was not a little criticism that the training was pointless. The fact that the team has been able to continue without losing is probably due in large part to the team color of “Fortius.

When everyone decides to give something a try, we give it our all. We never said, ‘Let’s quit’ just because it didn’t lead to results.

Above all, Yoshimura and the other members of the team find ballet stretching “simply fun.

If you do what you can do and keep at it, you will see results. The range of motion would gradually widen, the legs would come up, and the movements that had been difficult to perform would come closer to the way we imagined them as we did them more and more often. That was a lot of fun.

In contrast to Yoshimura, whose body has been soft since childhood, teammate Kaho Onodera, who is in the same grade as Yoshimura, is a third teammate. I’m hard, so even now, sometimes it hurts more than it feels good, but I’m happy that I’m gradually getting softer,” she says with a laugh.

The team name “Fortius” comes from a Latin word meaning “stronger. In order to become stronger, the team is willing to make steady progress.

In 2009, the contract with Hokkaido Bank, which had been the team’s main sponsor until then, was terminated, and “Fortius” was forced to start from scratch. In the same year, the team welcomed 19-year-old Mina Kobayashi (23), and in 2010, Yuna Kotani (27), who had a proven track record with another team, as new players, and Yumie Funayama (47), who had been a mainstay of the team since its formation, took a break from her competitive life and became a coach. In 2011, Kazuyuki Shirai, head coach of the WBC, was appointed as mental coach, and the following year, Niklas Edin, a world-class curler who had won the Olympics and World Championships with the Swedish national team, was invited as a special coach.

Naturally, there were risks involved in these various attempts, but the rewards outweighed the risks. For example, Yoshimura revealed that ballet stretching helped stabilize the throwing motion called “delivery.

He said, “I was able to move my body in the way I imagined, which allowed me to pursue the form I wanted to create without using unnecessary force.”

Working and raising children at the same time

In her personal life, she married a man in 2008 and had her first child in 2011. During the ’23/’24 season, she took a maternity leave, but she never missed her ballet stretches, which helped her a lot when she returned to the ice. And it was a big help when she returned to the ice.

There were times when I wasn’t feeling well and it was hard to come to the studio, but I was able to connect with them online and repeat the stretches. My body, back, neck, etc. had stiffened up so much after childbirth, but I was determined to build it up again, little by little.”

It may have been at his own pace, but he made a comeback just over two months after giving birth. She may have been in a hurry or under pressure.

I don’t think so. I had experienced the feeling that the areas that were stiff when I first started stretching were opening up as I did it, so I knew that if I kept doing it, I would definitely be able to get back into it.

This is supported by the testimony of physical coach Akagawa.

I think it was very early for me to get back on the ice,” he said. I didn’t want her to push herself too hard, so I was more of a brakeman. But from Sayaka’s positive attitude, rather than impatience or anxiety, I could feel her excitement: “I can’t wait to curling again! I supported her so that she could return to curling with peace of mind.

Her son, who was born safely, has grown up quickly and will soon be two years old.

I think he is going through a bit of a “no-go” phase,” she said. “When I bathe him, brush his teeth, or change his diaper, he grimaces and runs away. But he loves his food, so he eats it right away. I am happiest when my son is smiling.

Curling, childcare, and work. My days are full of tasks. On this day, after dropping her son off at daycare this morning, she had a ballet stretching session, then went to work at Sapporo Kashiwabakai Hospital, where she works, from noon. After working until the evening, she picked up her son and made curry for dinner.

I eat dinner with my son as much as possible,” she says. After that, I do the dishes and laundry, boil the bath, and take a bath together. …… After the evening, it is always a mess. Since I have a child in my life, the time I spend with my child is 100% curling and the time I spend with my child is 100% family time, so I can give my all to both.

I wonder to what extent her two-year-old son understands his mother’s global challenge.

I am sure he is still too young to understand, but I would be happy if he could see how hard I am working, even if only a little.

The “Fortius” team, led by Yoshimura, will represent Japan in the final qualifying round for the Olympics in Kelowna, Canada, starting December 6.

They carried a yoga mat for stretching, a must-have item. He carries a dozen acrylic photos of his beloved son in a carrying case as a good-luck charm. I am ready. He will surely win the ticket to Italy.

From “FRIDAY” December 12, 2025 issue