Kaori Sakamoto told her coach Sonoko Nakano after returning home from the Olympics, “I think I’ll compete at Worlds,” to which Nakano replied in surprise, “Wait, you’re going?”
Kaori Sakamoto, Olympic silver medalist, vows to give her all at her final competition—the World Championships – hoping to finish her career on a high note.
original source: Nikkansports 24th March 2026 by Daisuke Fujitsuk
Kaori Sakamoto (25), who won silver in women’s figure skating at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, has pledged to give everything she has at the World Championships, which will be her final competition as an active skater. Here’s a translation of her comments posted on Nikkansports.
She spoke to the press after official practice the day before the World Championships. Regarding her decision to compete at Worlds, she revealed, “The biggest reason is that I couldn’t give it my all at the Olympics. I felt I could have done a bit more. Since my body is still able to move, I thought it would be a waste to quit now, so I decided to compete.”
At the Milan-Cortina Olympics, Sakamoto was considered a favorite for gold, but in the free skate, a mistake prevented her from adding a second jump to her triple flip, and she missed out on gold to Alysa Liu (USA) by just 1.89 points. After announcing last June that she would retire at the end of this season, she had decided the Olympics would be her last competition. However, in the kiss and cry right after her Olympic free skate, she found herself wavering and began to consider Worlds. She made her decision before returning to Japan. She told her coach Sonoko Nakano after returning home, “I think I’ll compete at Worlds,” to which Nakano replied in surprise, “Wait, you’re going?”
After that, Sakamoto took about ten days off, during which she traveled to Hokkaido with the pairs gold medalists, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara. “Remembering the Olympics made me cry again. We had some pretty passionate conversations,” she said, feeling refreshed.
Sakamoto has won three consecutive World Championships since 2022 and took silver last year. “I want to make sure I reclaim what I left behind at the Olympics and finish with the best possible result.” As she heads into her final competition, she vowed, “Let’s give it everything we’ve got!” – determined to end her career in style as Japan’s leading skater.
Related topics: Kaori Sakamoto, world championship
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