Japanese Speed Skater Kodaira Nao Says She Will Retire In October
Japanese Olympic women's speed skating champion Kodaira Nao says she will retire from competition in October.
Kodaira said at a news conference on Tuesday that her last competition will be the 500-meter event in the national speed skating championship in October.
Kodaira has raced in four straight winter Olympics. She told reporters that she had been thinking about retirement since last summer.
She said she didn't want to spend her entire life as a skater, and wanted to try other things. She added that she still has many years to live, and now is the right time to draw the goal line for her skating career.
Kodaira is now 35. She was born in Chino City, Nagano Prefecture, in central Japan.
In the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, she won the women's 500-meter speed skating event with an Olympic record. She became the first Japanese woman to win a gold medal in the sport. She also won the silver medal in the 1,000-meter event.
In the Beijing Olympics in February, Kodaira finished in 17th place in the 500-meter race and 10th place in the 1,000-meter race, after spraining the right ankle just one month before the Games.