TOKYO -- Kaori Sakamoto, the three-time figure skating world champion, will retire after the 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 behind gold-winning American Alysa Liu.
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."