Nana Takagi, who with her younger sister Miho became the first pair of speed skating siblings to both appear at three Olympic Winter Games, announced her retirement on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old captured two gold medals at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, in the team pursuit and mass start. She suffered two falls at the Beijing Games in February, including one that likely cost Japan gold in the women's team pursuit final.
"I've decided to end my career as an athlete," Nana said at a press conference in Tokyo.
"My sister helped me get this far. I was able to take the ice as Nana Takagi and not as Miho Takagi's older sister in the end, and that (sense of personal fulfillment) is why I decided to retire," she said.
Standing just 155 centimeters tall, Takagi was a skater with immense power packed into her small frame. She specialized in middle- and long-distance races and made her Olympic debut in Sochi in 2014.
In 2018, Nana became the first female athlete from Japan to win two gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
The world record-holding Japanese team of the Takagi sisters and Ayano Sato placed second in a dramatic team pursuit final at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Feb. 15.
Japan had a slight lead entering the final turn, but Nana, who was at the back of the three-woman train, fell and slid into the wall. She crossed the finish line in tears more than 11 seconds after the final Canadian.
Four days later, Nana crashed out in the semifinal of the mass start, falling on the same corner as in the team pursuit final.
Her sister Miho was the team captain for the Japanese delegation in Beijing. She competed in five speed skating events in Beijing and won four medals, including a gold in the 1,000 meters.
Miho burst onto the scene as a schoolgirl and made her Olympic debut at the age of 15 at the 2010 Vancouver Games. The all-rounder won three medals -- one of each color -- in Pyeongchang. She is now Japan's most decorated female Olympian.
Later on Tuesday, at a separate press conference, Miho said she plans to take a break from the sport "without setting a timeline" while she recovers mentally and physically, although she was clear that did not mean hanging up her skates.
"After some self-reflection, I realized I want to continue skating," she said. But when asked whether she intended to aim for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, she said, "I don't know yet. I don't know how long my body will last."
"I don't feel as if I'm leading the world of (Japanese) speed skating. There won't be a change in my stance of being at full tilt when there's something I want to achieve. I won't try to look big, and will think flexibly."
On Nana's retirement, Miho admitted a sense of relief in not needing to go head-to-head against her sister anymore.
"There's loneliness in no longer having that relationship of rivalry, but part of me also feels that we don't need to compete again," she said.
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