Yuna Kotani

Yuna Kotani
Curler
Born (1998-05-26) May 26, 1998
Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Team
Curling clubSapporo CC, Sapporo
SkipSayaka Yoshimura
ThirdKaho Onodera
SecondYuna Kotani
LeadAnna Ohmiya
AlternateMina Kobayashi
Curling career
Member Association Japan
World Championship
appearances		2 (2018, 2025)
Olympic
appearances		1 (2026)
Medal record
Curling
Japan Women's Championship
2018 Nayoro
2025 Yokohama
2016 Aomori
2017 Karuizawa

Yuna Kotani (小谷 優奈, Kotani Yuna; born May 26, 1998 in Sagamihara) is a Japanese curler.[1]

At the national level she is a 2018 and 2025 Japan women's champion. She represented Japan internationally at the 2018 and 2025 World Women's Curling Championships and is representing Japan at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Career

Women's

2017–2022: Team Koana

Kotani would begin to find national success in women's curling during the 2017–18 curling season, where as the second on Team Tori Koana, they would win the 2018 Japan Women's Curling Championship.[2] This win qualified the Koana rink to represent Japan at the 2018 World Women's Curling Championship[3] finishing in 10th with a 5–7 record. Team Koana also represented Japan at the third leg of the 2018–19 Curling World Cup, finishing with a 2–4 record.

To begin the 2019-20 curling season, Koana won the Morioka City Women's Memorial Cup and finished runner-up at the 2019 Cargill Curling Training Centre Icebreaker.[4] The Koana rink was unable to win another Japanese Women's title, finishing 4th at the 2020 and 2021 Japan Curling Championships. Koana would announce at the beginning of the 2022-23 curling season that she would be stepping back to focus on mixed doubles, but remain as an alternate on the team that would now be skipped by Kotani. They would finish in 8th at the 2022 Japan Curling Championships, and Kotani would announce soon after the Japanese Championships she would be leaving the team to join Team Sayaka Yoshimura.[5]

2022–present: Team Yoshimura

Kotani joined the Sayaka Yoshimura rink in the middle of the 2022–23 season, with Yoshimura at skip, Kotani at third, Kaho Onodera at second, Anna Ohmiya at lead, and Mina Kobayashi as alternate with Yumie Funayama as the team's coach.[6] In Canada, the team had back-to-back quarterfinal appearances at the S3 Group Curling Stadium Series and the 2022 Western Showdown, losing out to Stefania Constantini and Meghan Walter respectively.[7] In December, Team Yoshimura competed in the 2022 Karuizawa International Curling Championships where they finished third, beating Loco Solare in the bronze medal game. In the New Year, the team played in the 2023 New Year Medalist Curling where they lost in the semifinals to Daniela Jentsch. It would be the team's last event of the 2022–23 season as positive cases of COVID-19 within the team forced them to withdraw from their qualifying round of the 2023 Japan Curling Championships.[8]

Team Yoshimura would return for the 2024–25 season, where they would find success on tour, finishing in the quarterfinals at the 2024 National and the 2025 Players' Championship Grand Slam events. Kotani and Onodera would also switch positions halfway through the season, with Onodera going into the third position and Kotani going into the second position. During the season, Yoshimura would win their next national title at the 2025 Japan Curling Championships, beating Miku Nihira 8–7 in the final. This win qualified them to represent Japan at the 2025 World Women's Curling Championship. At the World's however, the team would struggle, finishing 9th with a 4–8 record after round robin play.

Team Yoshimura would begin the 2025–26 season strong, winning the 2025 Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic, beating Momoha Tabata 6–3 in the final. They would continue their winning streak at the 2025 Japanese Olympic curling trials, beating Miyu Ueno 3–2 in a best-of-five final, and qualifying to represent Japan at the 2025 Olympic Qualification Event. At the Qualification event, the team would go 6–1 in the round robin and win 6–5 over Norway's Marianne Rørvik to win the event and qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics, Kotani's first Olympic Games.

Teams

Season Skip Third Second Lead Alternate Coach Events
2015–16 Junko Nishimuro (fourth) Misato Yanagisawa Tori Koana (skip) Riko Toyoda Yuna Kotani JWCC 2016 [9]
2016–17 Junko Nishimuro (fourth) Tori Koana (skip) Yuna Kotani Mao Ishigaki Kyoka Kuramitsu JWCC 2017 [10]
2017–18 Junko Nishimuro (fourth) Tori Koana (skip) Yuna Kotani Mao Ishigaki Arisa Kotani
Tori Koana Yuna Kotani Mao Ishigaki Arisa Kotani Junko Nishimuro (JWCC)
Kaho Onodera (WCC)		 J. D. Lind (WCC)
Yuji Nishimuro (WCC)		 JWCC 2018 [11]
WCC 2018 (10th)
2018–19 Tori Koana Junko Nishimuro Mao Ishigaki Arisa Kotani Yuna Kotani Yuji Nishimuro CWC/3 (6th)
JWCC 2019 (4th)[12][13]
2019–20 Tori Koana Yuna Kotani Mao Ishigaki Arisa Kotani
2020–21 Tori Koana Yuna Kotani Mao Ishigaki Arisa Kotani Jim Cotter
2021–22 Tori Koana Yuna Kotani Mao Ishigaki Arisa Kotani
2022–23 Sayaka Yoshimura Yuna Kotani Kaho Onodera Anna Ohmiya Yumie Funayama
Mina Kobayashi		 Connor Njegovan [14][15]
2023–24 Yuna Kotani[a] Kaho Onodera Anna Ohmiya Mina Kobayashi Sayaka Yoshimura
2024–25 Sayaka Yoshimura Kaho Onodera[b] Yuna Kotani[b] Anna Ohmiya Mina Kobayashi Yumie Funayama WWCC 2025 (9th)
2025–26 Sayaka Yoshimura Kaho Onodera Yuna Kotani Anna Ohmiya Mina Kobayashi Yumie Funayama

Personal life

Her younger sister Arisa is also a curler. They played together at the 2018 World Women's Curling Championship.

Notes

  1. ^ Sayaka Yoshimura did not play during the 2023–24 season as she was on maternity leave. Kotani moved up to skip the team with Onodera, Ohmiya and Kobayashi each moving up a position as well.
  2. ^ a b Kotani and Kaho Onodera switched positions halfway through the season.

References

  1. ^ Yuna Kotani at World Curling
  2. ^ "35th Japan Curling Championships". Japan Curling Association (in Japanese). Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  3. ^ "Media Guide – 2018 Ford World Women's Curling Championship" (PDF). Curling Canada. March 14, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  4. ^ "2019 Cargill Curling Training Centre Icebreaker". CurlingZone. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  5. ^ Tori Koana [@tori_koana] (September 2, 2022). チーム@fujiq_curlingと、別の道を歩むことになりました。 [We have decided to go our separate ways with team @fujiq_curling.] (Tweet) (in Japanese). Retrieved February 27, 2023 – via Twitter.
  6. ^ "新加入選手のお知らせ" (in Japanese). Fortius. September 16, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  7. ^ "2022 Western Showdown". CurlingZone. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  8. ^ "【ご報告】" (in Japanese). Fortius. December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  9. ^ 2016 Japan Curling Championships Coverage on CurlingZone
  10. ^ "第34回 全農日本カーリング選手権大会" [34th Zen-Noh Japan Curling Championships]. Japan Curling Association (in Japanese). Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  11. ^ "第35回 全農日本カーリング選手権大会" [35th Zen-Noh Japan Curling Championships]. Japan Curling Association (in Japanese). Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  12. ^ "The 36th Zen-Noh Japan Curling Championships". sapporo-curling.org. Archived from the original on January 29, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  13. ^ 2019 Japan Curling Championships Coverage on CurlingZone
  14. ^ "Teams". Karuizawa International Curling Championships. 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  15. ^ WCTジャパン ニューイヤーメダリストカーリング in 御代田 2023 [WCT-Japan New Year Medalist Curling in Miyota 2023]. LIVE-Link (in Japanese). 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
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