Why three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto will retire after the 2026 Winter Olympics
FILE - Japan's Kaori Sakamoto performs during the women single skating free skating at the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
FILE - Japan's Kaori Sakamoto performs during the women single skating free skating at the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
FILE - Kaori Sakamoto of Japan performs during the women's short program at the figure skating world championships, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - Japan's Kaori Sakamoto performs during the women single skating free skating at the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
TOKYO (AP) — Kaori Sakamoto, the three-time figure skating world champion, will retire after next year's 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, she said Friday.
The 25-year-old Japanese star won an Olympic bronze medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and took the silver medal in the world championships in March with gold to American Alysa Liu.
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Sakamoto acknowledged that age is catching up with her.
'I feel like I have less than a year left,' the Japanese news agency Kyodo quoted her as saying in Kobe, Japan. '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."
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