Three-times world figure skating champion Kaori Sakamoto is to retire after the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics next year, the Japanese 25-year-old told reporters in Kobe on Friday.

Sakamoto became the first woman in 56 years to win the figure skating world singles title three times in a row last year, matching the feat of American Peggy Fleming, who won three world titles between 1966-68.

“I feel like I have less than a year left. I’ll be 29 at the following Olympics, which is out of the question,” Kyodo news reported Sakamoto as saying. “I’ll try to bring things to a close the year I turn 26.”

Sakamoto, who won bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics, missed out on a fourth straight world title in March when she finished runner-up to American Alysa Liu.

REUTERS