Speed skating-Japan's Olympic champion Kodaira to retire

Japan's former Olympic speed skating champion Nao Kodaira will retire from the sport in October following a final race in her hometown of Nagano, the long track speed skater said on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old won Olympic gold in the women's 500 metres in Pyeongchang four years ago, as well as a silver in the 1,000 metres. She also won a silver in the team pursuit event in Vancouver 2010, alongside Masako Hozumi and Maki Tabata.

Kodaira had a disappointing outing at the Beijing Winter Games in February, finishing 17th in the 500m and 10th in the 1,000m.

"I'm nervous about what I'm about to say," Kodaira told a news conference. "I ... will run the last race of my career this October at the national single distances championships.

"When I thought about how long life is, I didn't want it to be only about speed skating. I felt that now was around the right time.

"There are several reasons but I wanted to race one last time while I still can physically. I wanted the last race to be at home in (the Shinshu region)"

Kodaira won 500m gold at the World Single Distance Championships in 2017 and 2020.

(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)