WINTER NOTE | A small column about winter sports and the people who live them.
“Japan have qualified for the Olympics” – that moment is always a little quiet
When the announcement echoed around the rink in Kelowna – that Japan had secured its ticket to Milano–Cortina – what stood out was not a wild fist pump, but skip Sayaka Yoshimura dropping her gaze for a second and exhaling. No shout, no leap into the air, just a joy that slowly welled up from inside. In that brief moment, you could almost feel the length of the road she had been walking all these years.
Japan women’s curling team Fortius (Team Yoshimura) defeated Norway 6–5 at the Olympic Qualification Event 2025 in Kelowna, Canada, and clinched their spot at the Milano–Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. With this result, Japan women’s curling will stand on Olympic ice for the eighth consecutive Games, stretching back to Nagano 1998.
Fifth time lucky – finally reaching the Olympic stage
For Sayaka Yoshimura, the Olympics had always been “just out of reach.” Her name has appeared on national-team candidate lists since high school. She has played at World Championships, yet at times still missed out when final rosters were set. Teams have changed, affiliations have changed – but she never let go of curling itself.
There was even a period when a sponsor ended its support and the very existence of the team was in doubt. When the decision was made to move their base to Sapporo and start again as “Fortius”, many people honestly must have wondered, “can they really go all the way to the Olympics from here?”
Watching Yoshimura hold back tears as she answered questions on the ice after the 6–5 playoff win over Norway, you got the sense that she was quietly telling her past self, again and again, “I was right to keep going back then.”
“It was a tough game, but I feel like we were able to show everything we’ve prepared for.”
Sayaka Yoshimura, after the playoff win (summary of comments)
On paper it’s simply a “6–5 nail-biter.” But behind that single line in the box score are the frustrations of five previous attempts, and the long stretches of time in which the team kept changing shape yet continued to exist.
The particular atmosphere around Team Fortius
There is a distinctive feel when Fortius are on the sheet. It’s a little different from the easily visible brightness of Loco Solare. Calmer, a bit more grown-up – and then suddenly bursting with energy when a big shot is made.
Skip Yoshimura lays out the game plan. Third Kaho Onodera shares that vision and sometimes proposes bold, high-risk shots. Second Yuna Kotani and lead Anna Ohmiya control the stone’s speed with their sweeping, and even from the bench you can tell how much effort they put into keeping the team’s mood light.
The presence of alternate Mina Kobayashi is just as important. She brings young energy and a kind of enjoyment that shows on her face even in tense moments. Experienced players and a new generation wearing the same jacket – that balance is what makes this team feel so distinctly “Fortius.”
A generation that inherits the baton of eight straight Olympics
Japan’s Olympic history in women’s curling began in Nagano, passed through Team Aomori in Torino, and then to Loco Solare in PyeongChang and Beijing. What they have shown the world over that time is simple: “Japan’s women’s curling can genuinely compete with the very best.”
Now Fortius are the ones taking that baton. Yoshimura’s generation stands right in the middle of the relay. They are the athletes who watched Loco’s silver and bronze medals on TV or from the stands and thought, “Next time, it has to be us.”
Of course the goal in Milano–Cortina will be a medal. And the phrase “eight consecutive Olympic appearances” is easy enough to read past as just a number. But inside that number lie more than 25 years in which teams have changed over and over, yet the message “Japan is strong” has never stopped.
The unique tension of a final Olympic qualifier
The Olympic Qualification Event has its own particular weight. Unlike a World Championship, there is no simple “win and you’re world champion” narrative. Instead, the looming reality is that “if you don’t win here, you won’t even stand on the Olympic start line.”
The field in Kelowna featured Japan, Norway, the United States, Germany, Türkiye, Estonia, Australia and the Czech Republic. Looking only at rankings and past results, you might assume Japan, Norway and the U.S. had the edge. But at a final qualifier, many games refuse to follow the script suggested by “on paper strength” alone.
Fortius themselves lost 10–9 to Norway in a come-from-behind defeat in the final game of the round robin. With that sour taste still lingering, they found themselves facing the very same opponent in the playoff the next day. Even through a screen, you could feel the heaviness of that atmosphere.
And yet, they answered back with two points in the 2nd end, stole in the 5th, and in the 10th only had to watch Norway’s last stone slide past to know they had won. A quiet victory in which they didn’t even need to throw the final rock. Not flashy, but exactly the way a team wins when it has done “everything it was supposed to do.”
What it means for Fortius to be the team that goes
Thanks in part to Loco Solare’s popularity, Japan’s curling fan base has grown rapidly in recent years. Against that backdrop, the fact that “this time it is Fortius who go as Team Japan” carries a special joy in terms of how the sport is spreading.
Of course, it is because of the path Loco have paved that Fortius could arrive at the final qualifier as one of the “favourites.” On top of that, a team with a completely different style will now stand on the Olympic stage. In that sense, this moment may mark a shift in Japanese curling from “the story of one particular team” to “a story handed on by many different teams.”
No one yet knows what kind of curling Fortius will show at Milano–Cortina. What is certain is that, on that quiet night in Kelowna, they were finally able to draw a satisfying line under “the road so far” – with a result that gave meaning to every step.
To close, WINTER NOTE leaves here two official posts that symbolise this qualification run and the journey of Fortius – as bookmarks to return to.
World Curling official X: announcing Japan’s Olympic ticket
Sayaka Yoshimura interview
The deeper winter grows, the richer the stories become on the ice. For Fortius, that story now runs from Kelowna to Milano – and it is far from over.
