3-time figure skating world champ Kaori Sakamoto to retire after Olympics

KYODO NEWS - 6 minutes ago - 13:56 | Sports, All
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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