MOMOTA Kento

Japan

Badminton

Games Participations1

First Olympic GamesTokyo 2020

Year of Birth1994

Social Media

Biography

For a while, Momota Kento was the best badminton player in the world, both in terms of accomplishments and rankings.

At the end 2019, he won the Badminton World Federation award for Best Male Player of the year, and was number one in the world rankings, having held top spot since September 2018. He is a six-time Japanese national champion and two-time world champion.

Momota was born on September 1, 1994 in Kagawa Prefecture. He is 175cm tall and weighs 72kg.

The left-hander started playing badminton when he was in the first grade of elementary school. In January 2007, when he was in sixth grade, he became number one in Japan at the National Elementary School Badminton Championship.

He went to Tomioka Daiichi Junior High School in Tomioka Town in Fukushima Prefecture, where promising players were gathered from all over the country, and in August 2009 he won the National Junior High School Badminton Tournament.

After graduating from junior high school, he entered Fukushima Prefectural Tomioka High School and won the World Junior Championship held in November 2012. After graduating from high school, he became a member of the NTT East Japan club team.

Momota began tasting regular success on the BWF World Tour circuit (at that time split into the BWF World Super Series and BWF Grand Prix tours) in 2015 as he began to constantly make finals.

However, a gambling scandal in 2016 meant the Japanese Badminton Association suspended him and rendered him unavailable for selection for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

He returned from his suspension in late 2017 and picked up where he left off, returning with wins at the Dutch and Macau Opens. His prowess was clear for all to see as he won the world and Asian titles in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019 in addition to claiming the prestigious All England title in 2019.

However, after wining the Malaysia Masters in January 2020 but just before returning home after the tournament, Momota was involved in a traffic accident and suffered lacerations and bruises all over his body. Furthermore, after her return to Japan, it was discovered that he had suffered facial injuries near his right eye.

Coupled with the lack of tournaments during the pandemic, Momota never quite regained the same lofty heights he enjoyed right before. He competed at his home Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021, but despite being top seed failed to make it out of the round-robin group stage, suffering a shock defeat to Heo Kwang-hee.

He only registered two further major international tournament wins after the accident, at the 2021 Indonesia Masters and 2023 Korea Masters, before announcing his retirement from international badminton in 2024 aged 29.

Momota Kento career title wins

Only BWF Grand Prix, Grand Prix Gold, Super Series, and World Tour and Japanese championship wins are listed here, in addition to medal performances at major international championships.