Anu Nieminen


Anu Kristiina Nieminen is a Finnish badminton player. Born in Helsinki, Nieminen joined the national team in 1994. She is one of the best badminton players in Finland, having won twelve National Championships, and competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics.
Nieminen first represented Finland at the Olympic level at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She reached the second round before losing to Kanako Yonekura of Japan. In the 2004 Olympics, she was defeated by Kaori Mori of Japan in the Round of 32. In 2006, she signed with the Finnish cosmetics company Lumene, along with her husband, professional tennis player Jarkko Nieminen.
Nieminen competed at the 2008 Olympics, she again reached the second round, this time losing to Huaiwen Xu of Germany. In the 2012 Olympics, she won her first match against Victoria Montero of Mexico, but after losing to Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei, she did not advance beyond the group stages. In 2013, she joined the Lillerød Badminton in Denmark as a coach for the young players.

Personal life

Anu Weckström began dating professional tennis player Jarkko Nieminen in the summer of 2003, and got engaged in December of that same year. The couple married in June 2005 at the Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki.

Achievements

BWF International Challenge/Series

Women's singles
YearTournamentOpponentScoreResult
2011Slovak Opengold1