(15 November 1948 – 7 September 2011 in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

) was a Japanese

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. She won numerous major international titles from the late 1960s to the late 1970s.

Career

Yuki was among the most notable of a cadre of fine players who helped Japan to win five of the six

Uber Cup The Uber Cup, sometimes called the World Women's Team Championships, is a major international badminton competition contested by women's national badminton teams. First held in 1956–1957 and contested at three year intervals, it has been contes ...

(women's world team) competitions held between 1966 and 1981. With the possible exception of

Etsuko Toganoo (formerly Etsuko Takenaka) is a retired Japanese badminton player noted for her consistency and impassive demeanor, who won numerous international titles during the 1970s. Along with her contemporaries Hiroe Yuki (Niinuma) and Noriko Takagi (N ...

she was Japan's most successful ever player at the prestigious All-England Championships winning four singles titles (1969, 1974, 1975, 1977) there, as well as a doubles title (1971) in partnership with her friendly rival Noriko Takagi. At the 1972 Olympics, she won a bronze medal in Women's singles, when badminton was played as a demonstration sport. In the latter part of her career she earned a women's singles bronze medal at the first

IBF World Championships The BWF World Championships, formerly known as IBF World Championships, and also known as the World Badminton Championships, is a badminton tournament sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF). The tournament is one of the most prestigious ...

in 1977. Yuki overcame an

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

rupture early in her career to compile her impressive record.Herbert Scheele ed., The ''International Badminton Federation Handbook for 1971'' (Canterbury, Kent, England: J.A. Jennings Ltd., 1971), pg. 220

Achievements

Olympic Games (demonstration)

World Championships

World Cup

Asian Games

International tournaments

Invitational tournament

Personal

In 1986, she married Kenji Niinuma, a Japanese popular

enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...

singer, and together they later had two children, a son and a daughter. In 2002, Yuki was inducted into the World Badminton Hall of Fame.

References

Japanese female badminton players 1948 births 2011 deaths Badminton players at the 1972 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in badminton Badminton players at the 1970 Asian Games Badminton players at the 1974 Asian Games Badminton players at the 1978 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 1970 Asian Games Medalists at the 1974 Asian Games Medalists at the 1978 Asian Games {{Japan-badminton-bio-stub