Sayaka Yoshimura

Yoshimura made her international debut for Japan at the 2006 Pacific Junior Curling Championships, playing lead for Team Japan, skipped by Megumi Kobayashi. They would win a silver medal. Yoshimura did not return to the Pacific Juniors until 2011, when she skipped Japan to a gold medal at the 2011 Pacific Junior Curling Championships, qualifying her nation for the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships. There, she led Japan to a 3–6 record, finishing in eighth place. Also that season, she skipped Japan at the 2011 Winter Universiade, finishing in fourth.

Yoshimura would once again lead Japan to a gold medal at the Pacific Juniors in 2012. She would then lead the team to a fifth place (6–4) finish at the 2012 World Junior Curling Championships. She won another gold medal for Japan at the 2013 Pacific-Asia Junior Curling Championships. She would finally make the podium at the World Juniors, leading Japan to bronze medal at the 2013 World Junior Curling Championships. After the round robin, her team of Rina Ida, Risa Ujihara and Mao Ishigaki were in second place with a 6–3 record. However, they lost both of their playoff games before beating the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game.

One year out of juniors, her team stuck together and played at the 2013 Winter Universiade, finishing in a disappointing seventh place. After the season, Yoshimura joined the Ayumi Ogasawara rink. On the World Curling Tour, they would win two events, the Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic and the Hub International Crown of Curling. At the 2014 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships, they would pick up a bronze medal. This would ordinarily not be enough to qualify Japan for the World Championships, but because Japan was hosting the event, the team represented their country at the 2015 World Women's Curling Championship, Yoshimura's first Worlds. There, they placed sixth. In 2015, the team won another tour event, the Karuizawa International Curling Championship. The team played in the 2016 Continental Cup of Curling where they were part of the losing Team World squad. 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 quarterfinal.

In 2018, Ogasawara left the team, leaving Yoshimura to take over as skip. The team would have immediate success on the tour, winning the 2018 Oakville Fall Classic.[1][2] The team played in two Slams over the course of the 2018–19 curling season, playing in the 2018 National and 2019 Players' Championship, failing to qualify for the playoffs in either event. They also had two runner-up finishes at the Colonial Square Ladies Classic and the Karuizawa International. They would finish third at the 2019 Japanese Curling Championship.

Team Yoshimura had a slow start to the 2019–20 season, only qualifying for the playoffs in three of their first eight events. They reached the semifinals of the 2019 Cargill Curling Training Centre Icebreaker and the quarterfinals of both the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic and the 2019 KW Fall Classic. They would find success at the first Grand Slam event of the season however, reaching the playoffs of the 2019 Masters. They would then upset higher ranked teams Jennifer Jones and Silvana Tirinzoni before losing to Tracy Fleury in the final.[3] It marked the first time an Asian team has made it to a grand slam final, excluding defunct events.[4] The team would not qualify in any of the other slams during the season. They once again finished third at the 2020 Japan Curling Championships.

Yoshimura attended Sapporo International University.[5]

Yoshimura set a record at the 2019 Masters, being the first women's team from Asia to make a Grand Slam final, excluding inactive events.

• Sayaka Yoshimura at World Curling Federation
• Sayaka Yoshimura at CurlingZone
• Hokkaido Bank Fortius, Official Website(in Japanese)