is 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 is a two-time world champion in the women's doubles. Nagahara attended Aomori Yamada High School, and was part of the Japanese national junior team that won the bronze medals at the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, 2014 Asian and 2014 World Junior Championships. She won her first senior international title at the 2014

Smiling Fish International The Smiling Fish International ( th, การการแข่งขันแบดมินตันนานาชาติ ปุ้มปุ้ยแชมเปี้ยนชิพ) is an open international badminton tournament held in Thail ...

in the women's doubles event partnered with

Mayu Matsumoto is a Japanese badminton player. Born in Hokkaido, she graduated from Shiritsu Towanomorisanai High School. She was part of the Hokuto Bank team. Matsumoto was awarded as the 2018 Most Improved Player of the Year by the BWF together with her pa ...

. In national events, she plays for the

Hokuto Bank is a Japanese bank that is headquartered in Akita, Akita prefecture. The bulk of the bank's business is in Akita prefecture, although it does operate branches in regional cities such as Morioka and Sendai, as well as a branch in Tokyo. The bank ...

team. Nagahara was awarded as the 2018 Most Improved Player of the Year by the BWF together with her partner

. They obtained the honour after winning the 2018 BWF World Championships title and improving their ranking from 14 to 3 in the world. On 30 April 2019, she reached a career high as the women's doubles world No. 1.

Career

2021

In March, Nagahara and her partner

won their first World Tour Super 1000 title in the All England Open defeating their compatriots, the defending champion, and current world number 1,

Yuki Fukushima is a Japanese badminton player affiliated with Marusugi Bluvic. She and her partner Sayaka Hirota won the 2017 Most Improved Player of the Year award. The duo were ranked as world No. 1 at the BWF World Ranking in 21 June 2018. Achievements ...

and

Sayaka Hirota is a Japanese badminton player affiliated with Saishunkan team. She and her partner Yuki Fukushima won the 2017 Most Improved Player of the Year award. Hirota and Fukushima were ranked world No. 1 at the BWF World Ranking in 21 June 2018. Achie ...

in the final. She competed at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

partnering Matsumoto as 3rd seeds, and her pace was stopped by

Kim So-yeong Kim So-yeong (Hangul: 김소영; born 9 July 1992) is a South Korean badminton player. Kim, who attended the University of Incheon, was the triple crowns at the 2013 Summer Universiade, by winning the gold medals in the women's doubles, mixed do ...

and

Kong Hee-yong Kong Hee-yong (Hangul: 공희용; born 11 December 1996) is a South Korean badminton player. In 2013, she won the mixed team gold at the BWF World Junior Championships. In 2014, Kong who was educated at the Daesung girls' high school competed at ...

of South Korea in the quarter-finals.

Achievements

BWF World Championships

''Women's doubles''

Asian Championships

''Women's doubles''

BWF World Tour (4 titles, 9 runners-up)

The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the

Badminton World Federation The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international governing body for the sport of badminton recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was founded in 1934 as the International Badminton Federation (IBF) with nine member ...

(BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100. ''Women's doubles''

BWF Grand Prix (2 titles, 4 runners-up)

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the

(BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017. ''Women's doubles'' ''Mixed doubles'' : BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament : BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (1 title)

''Women's doubles'' :

BWF International Challenge The BWF International Challenge is a grade 3 and level 1 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Series (level 2) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament :

BWF International Series The BWF International Series is a grade 3 and level 2 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Challenge (level 1) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament

Performance timeline

National team

* ''Junior level'' * ''Senior level''

Individual competitions

Senior level

= Women's doubles

= Mixed doubles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagahara, Wakana 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Hokkaido Japanese female badminton players World No. 1 badminton players Badminton players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players of Japan 21st-century Japanese women