Yuki Ota
| Yuki Ota | |
|---|---|
Ota at the 2014 Paris World Cup
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| Personal information | |
| Full name | Yuki Ota |
| Born |
25 November 1985 Otsu, Shiga, Japan |
| Weapon(s) | Foil |
| Hand | right-handed |
| Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 68 kg (150 lb; 10.7 st) |
| National coach(es) | Oleg Matseichuk |
| FIE Ranking | current ranking |
Yuki Ota (太田 雄貴 Ōta Yūki?, born 25 November 1985 in Otsu, Shiga) is a Japanese foil fencer, gold medallist at the 2006 Asian Games, silver medallist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, team silver medallist at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and individual gold medallist at the 2015 World Fencing Championships.
Yuki took up fencing in his elementary school years at the instigation of his father, a Zorro fan and keen amateur fencer. He won the national junior high school championships. In Heian High School, he got third consecutive championship victories in national high school championships.
Ota climbed his first World Cup podium with a victory at the 2004 Teheran World Cup. He qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, his first Olympic participation, but was defeated in the table of 16 by Russia's Renal Ganeyev. He later explained he had felt completely overpowered: "It was on a whole other level. In F1 terms, it was like the finalists were equipped with completely different engines." Demotivated, he was taken over in world rankings by friend and rival Kenta Chida, whom he always used to beat, and contemplated giving up competition to take a regular job.
In 2006, Ota resumed training with Japan's national coach, Ukrainian Oleg Matseichuk, from whom he had always kept his distances before. He won a gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and at the 2008 Asian Fencing Championships held in Bangkok.
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