Anna Ohmiya
Anna Ohmiya
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Anna Ohmiya

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Anna Ohmiya

Anna Ohmiya (近江谷 杏菜, Ōmiya Anna; born October 12, 1989 in Kitami) is a Japanese curler from Sapporo, Hokkaido. She is the lead on the FORTIUS curling team, which won the Japan Curling Championships in 2015, 2021 and 2025. She also won the national championship in 2008, 2009 and 2010 as a member of Team Aomori. She competed for Japan at two Olympics; the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Also at the international level, she has represented Japan at five World Women's Curling Championship (2008, 2010, 2015, 2021, 2025) and six Pacific-Asia Curling Championships in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2021, winning the gold medal in 2021.

Ohmiya made her international debut for Japan at the 2007 Pacific Junior Curling Championships, skipping her own team of Chiaki Matui, Megumi Tabusa, Akane Eda and Kiiko Kawaguchi. There, the team finished in last place with a 1–5 record.

For the 2007–08 season, Ohmiya joined the reigning Japanese champions Team Aomori as their alternate. The team, skipped by Moe Meguro, competed in the 2007 Pacific Curling Championships where they won the silver medal, qualifying Japan for the 2008 World Women's Curling Championship. They then won the 2008 Japan Curling Championships to qualify for the World Championship. At the Worlds, the team qualified Japan for the playoffs for the second time in history. After a 7–4 record round robin record, they beat Denmark's Angelina Jensen 7–3 in a tiebreaker to qualify for the playoff round. They then played Switzerland's Mirjam Ott in the 3 vs. 4 game where they won 6–4. This qualified them for the semifinal where they narrowly lost to Jennifer Jones of Canada 9–8 and then went on to lose the bronze medal game to Switzerland, finishing in fourth. The next season, Team Meguro again represented Japan at the 2008 Pacific Curling Championships. After a 6–2 round robin record, they lost to South Korea's Kim Mi-yeon in the semifinal game, earning the bronze medal. Despite going on to defend their title and win the 2009 Japanese national title, their third place finish was not enough to qualify them for the 2009 World Women's Curling Championship.

The 2009–10 season saw a lineup change for Team Aomori with Ohmiya moving up to play third on the team. As they were the two-time defending national champions, the team qualified for the final round of the 2009 Japanese Olympic Curling Trials to determine who would represent Japan at the 2010 Winter Olympics. There, they won all four of their games over Team Nagano to qualify for the Olympic Games. At the Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Team Aomori led Japan to a 3–6 round robin record, placing eighth overall at the event. In their three wins, they defeated Great Britain, Russia and the United States. Also during the 2009–10 season, the team represented Japan at the 2009 Pacific Curling Championships where they went through the round robin with a 6–2 record and then beat South Korea in the semifinal. They would lose in the final 10–3 to China's Wang Bingyu, however, had done enough to qualify Japan for the 2010 World Women's Curling Championship, which they would represent Japan at after again winning the Japanese Curling Championships. They would not have a good performance at the World Championship, finishing in eleventh place with a 2–9 record. Team Aomori skip Moe Meguro retired following the season and third Mari Motohashi left the team to move to Hokkaido.

With only Ohmiya, Kotomi Ishizaki and Mayo Yamaura left on Team Aomori, they added Shinobu Aota to the team as their new skip. In their first season together, the team finished second at the International Bernese Ladies Cup for the second year in a row. They also represented Japan at the 2010 Pacific Curling Championships where they won the bronze medal which was not enough to qualify for the 2011 World Women's Curling Championship. At the 2011 Japan Curling Championships, they could not repeat as national champions, losing in the final to Chubu Electric Power, skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa. It was the first time they hadn't won gold since 2006. The team remained together for two more seasons but did not see successful results which led to Ohmiya leaving the team at the end of the 2012–13 season.

After taking a season off, Ohmiya moved from Aomori to Hokkaido to join the Ayumi Ogasawara Hokkaido Bank Fortius curling team who were the top ranked team in Japan at the time. The team also included Sayaka Yoshimura at third, Kaho Onodera at second and Yumie Funayama as the alternate. On the World Curling Tour, they would win two events, the Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic and the Hub International Crown of Curling. Team Ogasawara represented Japan at the 2014 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, Ohmiya's first appearance at the event in four years. After a 5–3 round robin record, they lost to China's Liu Sijia in the semifinal. They were, however, able to pick up the bronze medal against New Zealand's Chelsea Farley. This would ordinarily not be enough to qualify Japan for the World Championships, but because Sapporo was hosting the event, Japan qualified for the 2015 World Women's Curling Championship. The team then competed in their national championship to determine who would represent Japan at the World Championship. After the round robin, they placed second with a 7–1 record, but defeated Loco Solare (Mari Motohashi) to qualify for the final where they once again played Motohashi. The team were successful in securing the national title by defeating Loco Solare 8–5 and qualifying for the World Championship. There, they placed just outside of the tiebreakers with a 6–5 record, ending in sixth place.

Team Ogasawara won one tour event during the 2015–16 season, the Karuizawa International, where they lost only one game en route to claiming the title. They also had semifinal appearances at the Colonial Square Ladies Classic, the Crestwood Ladies Fall Classic and the City of Perth Ladies International. The team played in the 2016 Continental Cup of Curling where they were part of the losing Team World squad. In February 2016, they competed in the Japan Curling Championships, attempting to defend their title. They had a strong round robin, going an undefeated 8–0, but then lost both of their playoff games to Loco Solare (Satsuki Fujisawa) and Fujikyu (Tori Koana), settling for third. They also played in the 2016 Humpty's Champions Cup, the team's first Grand Slam event. They would finish the round robin as the number one seed with a 4–0 record before losing in the quarterfinals to Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni.

The team altered their lineup for the 2016–17 season, moving Yoshimura to alternate and Yumie Funayama to third. At the start of the season, Team Ogasawara finished runner-up at the Royal LePage Women's Fall Classic to the Robyn MacPhee rink. They played in one grand slam, the 2016 Tour Challenge, losing in a tiebreaker to Anna Hasselborg. At the national championship, they went 6–2 through the round robin before losing both the semifinal and bronze medal games, settling for fourth. The next season was more successful for the team, reaching the semifinals in five of their eleven tour events. They were not able to make it further than the semifinals in any of their events, however. They did not have the opportunity to compete to represent Japan at the 2018 Winter Olympics as only the Fujisawa and Chiaki Matsumura rinks were selected to compete in the 2017 Japanese Olympic Curling Trials. At the 2018 Japan Curling Championships, they went 7–1 through the round robin and once again won the 1 vs. 2 page playoff game to qualify for the final. There, they faced Koana's Fujikyu rink. Tied 3–3 with the hammer in the tenth end, Ogasawara missed her last shot and the team gave up a steal of two and the win to the Koana rink. Following the season, Ogasawara stepped away from competitive curling.

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