Eri Ogihara (born February 12, 2003, in Japan) is a Japanese female curler from

Karuizawa is a resort town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,323 in 9897 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km2. The total area of the town is . Originally, there was a stage station ( ...

Career

At the age of 10, Ogihara began competitively curling, joining

Ikue Kitazawa is a Japanese curler from Saku, Nagano. She is the skip of the Chubu Electric Power curling team, which won the Japan Curling Championships in both 2017 and 2019. At the international level, she has represented Japan twice at the World Women's ...

's junior team where they played in the 2014 Japan Women's Curling Championship. Ogihara then returned to the national women's championship in 2017, as lead for the Misato Yanagisawa rink. Ogihara found success in 2019 and started representing Japan at the world-level, playing third for the Sae Yamamoto rink, where they won the 2019 World Junior-B Curling Championships (Dec), qualifying themselves for the

2020 World Junior Curling Championships The 2020 World Junior Curling Championships was held from February 15 to 22 at the Crystal Ice Arena in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Canada proved to be the best in the field in both events as Jacques Gauthier and Mackenzie Zacharias both won their res ...

, where they finished 4th. After the World Juniors was cancelled in 2021, the Yamamoto rink returned to the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships, where they won the gold medal, beating Sweden's Moa Dryburgh 7–4 in the final, winning Japan's first ever World Junior Championship. Ogihara would return to the World Juniors in 2023, with the newly formed

Yuina Miura Yuina is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese musician and actress *, Japanese actress *Yuina Yamamoto (born 2003), Japanese footballer Fictional characters *Yuina Wakura, a character in the anime series ...

rink, where they finished in second, losing to Scotland's Fay Henderson 9–7 in the final. While going their separate ways after graduating to Women's play, Ogihara would join forces with

again in 2025, representing Japan as part of the team from Sapporo International University at the

2025 Winter World University Games The 2025 FISU Winter World University Games, also known as the XXXII Winter World University Games, or the 32nd Winter Universiade, and commonly known as Turin 2025 or Torino 2025, was a multi-sport event for student and youth athletes, held bet ...

. They won Japan's first gold medal in curling at the World University Games, beating South Korea's

Kang Bo-bae Kang may refer to: Places * Kang Kalan, Punjab * Kang District, Afghanistan * Kang, Botswana, a village * Kang County, Gansu, China * Kang, Isfahan, Iran, a village * Kang, Kerman, Iran, a village * Kang, Razavi Khorasan, Iran, a village * Kh ...

rink 7–5 in the final.

Personal life

Ogihara attended Sapporo International University.

Teams

References

External links

* Living people 2003 births Japanese female curlers People from Karuizawa, Nagano Curlers from Nagano Prefecture 21st-century Japanese sportswomen Rikkyo University alumni Medalists at the 2025 Winter World University Games {{Japan-curling-bio-stub