(Reuters) – Japan’s former Olympic pace skating champion Nao Kodaira will retire from the game in October following a remaining race in her hometown of Nagano, the lengthy observe pace skater mentioned on Tuesday.
The 35-year-old received Olympic gold within the ladies’s 500 metres in Pyeongchang 4 years in the past, in addition to a silver within the 1,000 metres. She additionally received a silver within the staff pursuit occasion in Vancouver 2010, alongside Masako Hozumi and Maki Tabata.
Kodaira had a disappointing outing on the Beijing Winter Games in February, ending seventeenth within the 500m and tenth within the 1,000m.
“I’m nervous about what I’m about to say,” Kodaira instructed a information convention. “I … will run the final race of my profession this October on the nationwide single distances championships.
“When I thought of how lengthy life is, I did not need it to be solely about pace skating. I felt that now was round the precise time.
“There are a number of causes however I wished to race one final time whereas I nonetheless can bodily. I wished the final race to be at residence in (the Shinshu area)”
Kodaira received 500m gold on the World Single Distance Championships in 2017 and 2020.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
