Hiroe Yuki (湯木 博恵, Yuki Hiroe) (15 November 1948 – 7 September 2011 in Tokyo) was a Japanese badminton player. She won numerous major international titles from the late 1960s to the late 1970s.[1]
Yuki was among the most notable of a cadre of fine players who helped Japan to win five of the six Uber Cup (women's world team) competitions held between 1966 and 1981.[2] With the possible exception of Etsuko Toganoo 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.[3] 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 in 1977. Yuki overcame an Achilles tendon rupture early in her career to compile her impressive record.[4]
In 1986, she married Kenji Niinuma, a Japanese popular enka 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.
Utami Dewi
Bronze
Gillian Gilks
Bronze
Lene Køppen
Silver
Thongkam Kingmanee
Gold
Oh Youn-han
Noriko Takagi
Runner-up
Eva Twedberg
Winner
Joke van Beusekom
Rosalind Singha Ang
Judy Hashman
