7-time Olympic medallist Takagi Miho not hanging up her skates just yet

The most decorated female Japanese Olympian of all-time is carrying on.

At least for now, anyway.

“I felt like I wanted to keep skating and as long as I feel that way, I will”, said speed skater Takagi Miho on Tuesday (5 April), a Beijing 2022 gold and triple silver medallist.

“I want to do what I can, when I can, so I don’t regret anything down the line.

“I did ask myself whether I want to continue but there was a part of me that was upbeat about skating. And not out of a sense of responsibility or mission but because I want to.

“That’s what I’ve come to understand about myself”.

Asked whether Milano Cortina 2026 - which would be her fourth Olympic appearance when she would be 31 - was anywhere on the radar, Takagi kept it true.

“Being completely honest, I don’t know”, the seven-time Olympic medallist said during an hour-long press conference, her first words since coming home from the season-ending World Speed Skating Championships in Hamar, Norway, earlier this month.

“Maybe the day I won’t want to skate anymore will come.

“Who knows how long my body will hold up as an athlete. It’s something I started to realise when I hurt my knee the season before the Olympics.

“Compared to my early 20s, the countdown has definitely begun for my body. The end might come regardless of how I feel and I know it could come at any time.

“So I can’t sit here and definitively say anything about Milano. You don’t work up the energy for an Olympics, just like that”.

Takagi was an absolute workhorse in Beijing, entering in five events - the 500 metres, 1,000m, 1,500m, 3,000m and the team pursuit.

She missed the podium in only the 3,000m (she was sixth) and won her first career individual gold in the 1,000m in an Olympic record of 1 minute, 13.19 seconds.

With her haul from Beijing, Takagi has more medals than any other female Japanese Olympian, Summer and Winter combined.

The Hokkaido native surpassed Games legends with five - judoka Tani Ryoko and artistic swimmers Tachibana Miya and Takeda Miho.

Takagi admitted she was running on fumes by the time she got around to the 1,000m, which was her seventh race of the Games.

While she went on to win the 1,000m, Takagi could barely eat the night before and wasn’t even physically sure if she could start the race.

“I had nothing to spare and all I could think about was what I had to do. In hindsight, it probably helped me focus better.

“After the 1,000m I felt like I had nothing more to give. Not only in that race but for the whole of the Games. It was that kind of day.

“My goal was never to win a certain number of medals. I wasn’t like jumping for joy because I won four. It just happened to work out that way”.

Whenever Takagi decides to lace up her skates again, she will be doing it without Dutch coach Johan de Wit as well as older sister and two-time Olympic gold medallist Nana.

De Wit decided to part with the Japan Skating Federation and Nana, who is almost two years older than Miho, has called it a career.

“We get along but we fight, go shopping and travel just like any other sisters do”, Miho said.

“Up close, I watched her work hard towards her goals, become who she wanted to become. She influenced me a lot when it comes to skating”.