3-time figure skating world champ Kaori Sakamoto to retire after Olympics
Japanese figure skater Kaori Sakamoto, winner of three consecutive world championships through 2024, said Friday she will retire from competition after next year's Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The 25-year-old, who claimed women's singles bronze at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, finished second at the world championships in Boston in March.
Sakamoto revealed her plan at the opening ceremony for a new skating rink in her home city of Kobe in western Japan.
"I feel like I have less than a year left," she said. "I'll be 29 at the following Olympics (in 2030), which is out of the question. I'll try to bring things to a close the year I turn 26."
Sakamoto made her Olympic debut at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. She won her fourth straight Japanese championship, and fifth overall, last December.
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Japan Times
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Japan Times
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Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
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