Japan's three-time Olympic champion Saori Yoshida said Tuesday she will close the curtain on her decorated wrestling career with less than two years to go until the next Summer Games.

"I have decided to end my 33-year career as a competitive wrestler," Yoshida said on Twitter.

"I have been able to do my best as an active wrestler because of the cheers and support from many people."

A 13-time world champion, the 36-year-old Yoshida has been taking time away from the mat since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where she fell short of a fourth-straight Olympic gold medal. She has been doubling as a coach for the Japanese national team in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

(Yoshida buries her face in the mat after losing to Helen Louise Maroulis of the United States in the 53-kilogram final at the Rio Olympics)

She said after her announcement that she aims to continue coaching, adding "I want to stay light-hearted and enjoy my life after retirement with a smile."

She plans to hold a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday.

"I want to show my appreciation and announce my retirement in front of everybody," she said on Twitter.

Yoshida topped the podium in the women's 55-kilogram division at three straight Summer Games between 2004 and 2012, but settled for silver in the 53-kg division in 2016.

Yoshida, along with four-time Olympic champion Kaori Icho, is credited with shedding light on women's wrestling, a sport that was officially added to the Olympic program at the 2004 Athens Games.

Yoshida took up the sport as a 3-year-old in Mie Prefecture in central Japan under her father Eikatsu, who ran a wrestling school. She trained under Kazuhito Sakae, the former women's technical director for the Japan Wrestling Federation, after entering Chukyo Women's University, currently known as Shigakkan University, in 2001.

With her trademark high-speed takedowns, she won her maiden world championship in 2002 at age 20 and went on to claim 13 straight titles. Between 2001 and 2008, Yoshida won 119 consecutive matches.

She received the People's Honor Award in 2012 after surpassing Aleksandr Karelin's record for consecutive world titles. The Russian legend had won three Olympic gold medals and nine world championships in the Greco-Roman 130-kg class between 1988 and 1999.

Yoshida took the job of vice president of her alma mater Shigakkan University from November 2016-August 2018. Her former coach Sakae resigned from the JWF in April last year after it emerged that he had harassed Icho.