Anu Kristiina Nieminen (born 16 December 1977; née Weckström) is a Finnish

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player. Born in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Nieminen has joined the national team in 1994. She is one of the best badminton players in Finland, having won twelve times

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

, and competed at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

in four consecutive times. Nieminen first represented Finland at the Olympic level at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

in Sydney. She reached the second round before losing to

Kanako Yonekura is a badminton player from Japan. Yonekura won the gold in women's singles of the badminton tournament in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, by defeating Gong Zhichao of People's Republic of China in the final. She played badminton at the 2004 Sum ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In

2004 Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, she defeated in the round of 32 to

Kaori Mori is a former Japanese badminton player. She was the women's singles national champion in 2001 and 2003. Mori won the bronze medal at the 2004 Asian Championships and also the silver medals in 2005 and 2006. She played badminton at the 2004 Su ...

of Japan. In 2006, she signed with the Finnish cosmetics company Lumene, along with her husband, professional tennis player

Jarkko Nieminen Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...

. Nieminen competed at the 2008 Olympics, she again reached the second round, this time losing to

Huaiwen Xu Huaiwen Xu (; born 2 August 1975) is a German badminton player. Born in Guiyang, Guizhou, China, she decided to play for Germany because the Chinese thought that she was too short to play professional world badminton.Said by David Mercer/ Gill ...

of Germany. In

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, she won her first match against

Victoria Montero Victoria Montero (born Victoria Eugenia Montero Enríquez; 25 August 1991) is a Mexican athlete who competes in badminton. In 2010, she participated at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games where she won the gold medal in the singles, d ...

of Mexico, but lose a match to

Tai Tzu-ying Tai Tzu-ying (; born 20 June 1994) is a Taiwanese badminton player. At the age of 22, she became world No. 1 in the women's singles in December 2016, and she is the women's singles player who has held that title for the longest in BWF hist ...

of Chinese Taipei, she did not advance beyond the group stages. In 2013, she has joined the Lillerød Badminton in Denmark as a coach for the young players.

Achievements

BWF International Challenge/Series

''Women's singles'' ''Women's doubles'' : BWF International Challenge tournament : BWF International Series tournament

References

External links

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Photo of Anu Nieminen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nieminen, Anu 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Helsinki Finnish female badminton players Olympic badminton players of Finland Badminton players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 2012 Summer Olympics