Sayaka Yoshimura: “I Was Able to Give It My All in My Final Olympics” (Former Member of the Japanese National Curling Team “Fortius”)

Since retiring in June, she has been raising her 2-year-old son and working at a hospital—

Have I lost a little weight?

“I’m not doing any training at all right now…”

Even so, the smile that appeared on her face as she spoke remained unchanged.

Three months have passed since Sayaka Yoshimura (34) of the curling team “Fortius” announced her retirement this past June. When asked about her current role, she seems a bit shy, saying, “I guess I’m the company’s public relations officer?” She continues to work at the Kashiwaba Medical Corporation in Sapporo, just as she did during her playing days.

“I drop my son off and pick him up, then go to work. I’m really living a normal life.”

She first began thinking about the Olympics toward the end of her teenage years. After years of hard work, she finally stood on the stage of her long-cherished dream this past February. And in a sense, what she may have wanted just as much as the Olympics was that “ordinary life.”

Yoshimura married a non-athlete in 2020 and gave birth to a son in 2023. The following summer, she returned to figure skating and delivered a performance that showed no signs of a hiatus. Then, in 2025, Fortius won the Japanese Championships and became a candidate for the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

In her fifth Olympic bid, while she felt a definite sense of progress, she was also struggling more than ever.

“I was able to continue playing the curling I love, but I still couldn’t find time to spend with my family, and I did feel lonely.”

Even while she was on overseas tours, her husband sent her photos and videos of their son almost every day. “I felt close to my family,” she says, but hugging her son as he grew day by day was not easy for her.

She wasn’t there for the moment her son crawled for the first time, nor when he stood up for the first time. Although they sometimes chatted on LINE, taking the time difference into account while she was away, she says there were times when her son would cry because he missed his mother as soon as the call ended.

Toward My Final Olympics

I made the decision in the spring of ’25, after competing in the World Championships. A few months later, before the start of the ’26 Olympic season, I told Coach Yumie Funayama (48) and some team officials:

“Regardless of how this season turns out, I will retire as an athlete.”

She broke the news to her teammates during the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Unable to rack up wins as she had hoped, the team had already been eliminated in the round-robin (preliminary round).

“I truly came to realize the weight of a single victory,”

Yoshimura recalls. Fortius, representing Japan, ultimately secured only two victories at the Olympics.

“Precisely because we were struggling, we had meetings outside of matches where we all talked—and sometimes even clashed emotionally. Everyone refused to give up until the very end, and we put our heads together to figure out how to win. It was a very precious time.”

At that point, Yoshimura candidly stated, “I believe this will be my last Olympics. That’s why I want to give it my all right to the very end.” The next day, she faced China in what would be her final match as a member of the Japanese national team and secured an 8th-place finish. Of course, she was not satisfied with an 8th-place finish.

“I still feel a sense of regret, but I was able to experience a range of emotions that can only be felt on the Olympic stage—a stage I approached having made the decision to retire and steeled myself for.”

[Part 2] Sayaka Yoshimura: “My curling career was probably marked more by regret than anything else” (Former Japanese National Curling Team Member)

From the October 2 & 9, 2026, combined issue of *FRIDAY*