Reiko Shiota

Doubles badminton is, to my eye, one of the fastest things two human beings can do in a marked-off box, and Reiko Shiota spent years doing it against the best in the world. Born in Kanda, Fukuoka, in 1983, she paired with Kumiko Ogura to take bronze at the 2007 World Championships, and picked up team silver and doubles bronze at the 2006 Asian Games. Those are hard, unglamorous results. What complicates her story is that in Japan the duo became famous partly as a media phenomenon, a pair of photogenic athletes the country decided to adore. I find that a heavier burden than it sounds: it is difficult enough to keep winning, and harder still to keep winning while the cameras are interested in something other than your smash. She managed both, and in doing so pulled a niche sport into living rooms that had never watched it. That second achievement rarely shows up in a medal table, but it should.

Name (English)

Reiko Shiota

Name (Japanese)

潮田玲子

Reading

しおた れいこ

Born

September 30, 1983 (age 42)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Boar

Origin

Kanda, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Height

166 cm

Occupation

badminton player

Awards & achievements

• national champion

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/reikoshiota_official/
• Xhttps://x.com/Reishio
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiko%20Shiota
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BD%AE%E7%94%B0%E7%8E%B2%E5%AD%90
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q456066

Tags

• Fukuoka Prefecture
• badminton player

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.