MILAN, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Kaori Sakamoto's final Olympic skate ended in bittersweet fashion on Thursday, the three‑time world champion leaving Milano Cortina with a silver medal that felt as much like a lesson as an achievement.
A missed jump combination in her free skate to Edith Piaf songs cost her the gold — a detail she replayed in her mind as she finished with 224.90 points, just behind American Alysa Liu’s 226.79. She was seen sobbing on the sidelines as the winner was announced.
"I thought I might be able to finish with a smile but instead I'm ending it with this sense of frustration," she said, speaking through a translator. "Still, I'll try to make this experience valuable for the future.
"The points I lost on those mistakes were exactly the margin that cost me the gold medal ... that's the most frustrating part — I know I left something out there."
Sakamoto, who has said she will retire at the end of this season, had hoped to complete her resume with Olympic gold.
"I really wanted to skate perfectly here," she said.
"Knowing that I couldn't ... was painful. I couldn't stop the tears."
Still, the 25‑year‑old, who also won team silver, tried to acknowledge the distance she has travelled since her Beijing 2022 bronze.
"My bronze before felt like a miracle. The fact that I now feel frustrated with a silver medal shows how much I've grown," she said.
She also celebrated the performances of her younger teammates — 17‑year‑old Ami Nakai, who earned bronze, and Mone Chiba, who finished fourth.
"For a 17‑year‑old to skate with that kind of composure and finish third is amazing," she said. "Being able to compete with both of them here is something I'll always treasure."
Nakai, who led after the short programme after nailing a triple Axel, did not quite execute her free skate with the same ease.
Although she paid the price for downgrading a triple-triple jump combination into a triple-double effort, she was still overwhelmed by her unexpected bronze.
"At first, I didn't even think I'd be able to compete in the Olympics, and now I've won a bronze medal, it still doesn't feel real," she said. She finished with 219.16 points, becoming one of Japan's youngest women's singles medallists.
"I started skating because I loved the sport ... and now I was able to fully express my love for skating on the Olympic stage," she added.
She admitted she felt the sting of Sakamoto's heartbreak.
"I've seen Kaori's hard work, so when I saw her performance, I felt very sad ... From now on, I want to become a skater like Kaori, with a firm sense that I am carrying the weight of Japan on my shoulders."
Chiba, fourth on her Olympic debut, congratulated the medallists and vowed to carry the experience forward.
"I feel like even though I gave it my all, I still fell short," she said. "I'll keep this feeling in mind and carry it forward ... with a view to the World Championships."
Sakamoto believes Japan's figure skating will get even stronger in the future thanks to skaters like Nakai and Chiba, adding she hopes to return to the Olympic stage one day "as a coach to future gold medallists".
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
