Chiho Osawa, who played an active role as the captain of Japan's women's ice hockey team "Smile Japan" and announced her retirement, held a press conference and said, "I was really happy, so I'm sad to quit." .

Osawa is 30 years old from Tomakomai City, Hokkaido, and has participated in the Olympics as the captain of "Smile Japan" for three consecutive Olympics, including the Beijing Games held in February this year.



Osawa is a forward with a variety of attacks that make use of his speed and a physical strength that does not give up on hits.

Osawa announced his retirement on August 1st and held a press conference in Sapporo on the 10th.



In this, Osawa said, "I was really happy, so I'm sad to quit. I'm grateful to everyone who supported me."



As for why he decided to retire, he said, ``I thought that even if I finished the Beijing Olympics and came back four years later, I would have performed the same or worse.''



Looking back on his active life, Osawa said, "It was a lot of fun. I liked sharing my thoughts with my friends and pushing forward towards my goals."



As for the future, he said, "I want to increase the number of people competing, so I want to spread the experience and appeal of the sport.I want to achieve great results in a different form from now on."