Okuhara Nozomi

Jayce September 6, 2024 2 0

Character Introduction

Okuhara Nozomi is a Japanese female badminton player and an active member of the Japan national badminton team. Born in Omachi City, Nagano Prefecture, she graduated from Omachi Municipal Ninkodai Junior High School, and is currently studying at Saitama Prefectural Omiya Higashi High School. In April 2013, she joined the badminton team of Unisys Japan Ltd.

Hope Okuhara started playing badminton at the age of 6. To help strengthen her nutrition, her father and grandfather started beekeeping. Hope Okuhara says she will bring home-made honey with her to the Rio Olympics. She said, “Drinking honey gives you more strength, and sometimes it’s effective to drink honey when you have an upset throat. I don’t have to add anything else, I just drink it straight.” Besides badminton, Okuhara hopes to enjoy swimming.

In October 2011, Okuhara competed in the women’s singles at the World Junior Badminton Championships in Taoyuan, Taiwan, where she was defeated in the semifinals by the eventual champion, Rachano Indanon of Thailand, and did not advance to the finals. In December of the same year, Okuhara competed in the All Japan Comprehensive Badminton Championships held in her home country and won the women’s singles title, becoming the youngest winner (16 years and 8 months) in the event’s history.

At the end of 2015, she then won the Badminton World Federation Superseries Finals with back-to-back victories over world No. 1 Marin of Spain and China’s Olympic mainstay Wang Yihan.

At the 2016 All England Open, she became Japan’s first All England women’s singles champion in 39 years with back-to-back victories over Wang Yihan, Wang Shixian, and other Chinese mainstays.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Okuhara hopefully defeated India’s Sindhu in the semifinals and suffered a withdrawal from Li Xuerui in the third-place match to win the bronze medal, the first Olympic medal won by Japanese women’s singles.

In the women’s singles final of the Glasgow Badminton World Championships on August 27, 2017, Japan’s Hope Okuhara and India’s Sindhu battled through three sets before winning 2-1 to win their first individual World Series singles title. It was also a major breakthrough for Japanese players in the tournament after Misaki Matsutomo/Reika Takahashi won the Olympic women’s doubles title at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the first time a Japanese player has won the women’s singles final of the World Championships.

On February 11, 2018, at the 2018 Badminton Asian Team Championships held in Malaysia, Okuhara Hope defeated He Bingjiao 2-1 in 1 hour and 6 minutes to win the team title.

In May 2018, Hope Okuhara played in the Uber Cup and helped the Japanese women’s team win the title with a clean sweep, while becoming a member of Japan’s first generation of Uber Cup champions.

On August 22, 2018, in the women’s team badminton tournament at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, the Japanese team consisting of Akane Yamaguchi/Yuki Fukushima/Caihua Hirota/Hope Okuhara/Misaki Matsutomo/Reika Takahashi won the women’s team title with a 3-1 comeback victory over China.

In March 2021, in the women’s singles final of the All England Open Badminton Championships, Okuhara hoped to win the title after 2016 by defeating Lee Wonderful 2-0 to win the title.

On December 3, 2023, Okuhara hoped to win the women’s singles title at the Said Modi International (super300) in India, ending a two-year drought of individual tournament titles.

On December 3, 2023, she retired in the final of the 2023 All Japan Championships, and did not win the All Japan Championships.

World Ranking – Women’s Singles 12, Week 31, 2024

Olympic Points – Women’s Singles 17, 57027 points

Finals Ranking – Women’s Singles 4, 56230 points

Equipment Used

VOLTRIC Z-FORCE; ARCSABER 7; WAVE CLAW NEO; WAVE CLAW; ALTIUS 01 FEEL; WAVE CLAW 2; 10380YX/20567YX (Competition Model); ALTIUS 01 Speed; ALTIUS 01 FEELS; ALTIUS TOUR-J