(Reuters) – Japan’s double Olympic speed skating champion Nana Takagi announced her retirement from the sport on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old won gold in the inaugural women’s mass start competition in Pyeongchang four years ago, as well as a team pursuit gold alongside her sister Miho and Ayano Sato.
At the Beijing Winter Games in February, her fall on the last bend in the team pursuit cost Japan the gold medal. She crashed out on the same turn in the semi-finals of the mass start days later.
“I’ve decided to end my career as an athlete,” Takagi told a news conference.
“My sister helped me get this far. I was able to take the ice as Nana Takagi and not as Miho’s older sister in the end, and that (sense of personal fulfilment) is why I decided to retire.”
Takagi also won three team pursuit titles at the World Single Distance Championships in 2015, 2019 and 2020.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
