Japan's first female Olympic speedskating gold medalist Nao Kodaira announced her impending retirement Tuesday, saying she will bring her competitive career to an end this fall.
Kodaira, the winner of the women's 500-meter title at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, has been overall world sprint champion twice, collected two titles over 500 at the world single distances championships and has 34 career World Cup wins in the 500 and 1,000 meters.
"The last race of my athletic career will be the 500 meters at the national single-distance championships in October this year," she said of the Oct. 22-24 event, to be held in her home prefecture of Nagano.