Japan mourns the final decision of Daisuke Takahashi, an ice skating legend

The Japanese skater Daisuke Takahashibronze medalist at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, announced his retirement from high performance on Monday. “We have made the decision to retire from competition after this season”warned Takahashi to his current partner, kana muramotowith which he formed a successful tandem as of 2020 after giving up individual figure skating.

The decision was agreed “after much discussion”, Muramoto underlines in the video, adding that this Tuesday they will hold a press conference, in which they should explain the reasons.

Takahashi, 37, was still one of the most important and publicly loved athletes in the Asian country. He was a forerunner. Is that he became the first Japanese to win an Olympic medal in men’s figure skating. And he didn’t stop there. He was also the first podium finisher in the Skating Grand Prix (2005) and to win gold in the same event (2012).

The skater took part in three editions of the Olympic Games: Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. His career was marred by injuriesthe most important in 2008, when he suffered a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

However, Takahashi is back with everything. After recovering, he won the bronze medal in Vancouver 2010 and later the gold medal at the world championships of the same year in Turin.

In November 2013, he started having problems with that knee again and had to repeatedly have synovial fluid extracted. A year later, he managed to compete at the Sochi Games, where his compatriot Hanyu took gold and Takahashi finished sixth.

Five-time Japan champion, the skater announced his retirement from figure skating at the age of 28 in October 2014, after taking a few months off to rethink his future.

Four years later Takahashi would compete again, if only for two seasons before surprisingly announcing his move to ice dancing, which generated great anticipation.

Takahashi and Muramoto (30) made their debuts in the 2020-2021 season, but failed to qualify for the 2022 Beijing Games. They would make it to this year’s World Cup, which was held in the Japanese city of Saitama, where the pair finished number 11, the highest to date for a Japanese tandem.

Source: EFE