Ken Terauchi, a 6-year-old diver who retired this month after participating in six Olympics, matching the most Japan athletes at the Summer Olympics, looked back on his 43-year career as a diver at a press conference, saying, "I was able to cut the goal tape with a refreshing feeling."
Terauchi is a 43-year-old from Hyogo Prefecture.
He has participated in four consecutive Olympic Games since the 1996 Atlanta Games, and has been leading the Japan diving for many years.
He retired from active play, but then returned and made his sixth Olympic appearance, matching the record for the most Japan athletes at the Tokyo Games.
Terauchi retired after winning the men's synchro board diving at the Japan Championships on the 4st of this month, and on the 6th, he held a press conference with coach MABUCHI Takahide, who has been coaching for about 1 years since he was in the fifth grade of elementary school at his company in Yao City, Osaka.
Terauchi said with a satisfied expression, "I always had retirement in mind after the age of 14, but at the end of last year I hurt my knee and couldn't practice driving, so I thought it would be tough.
As for the future, he expressed his desire to coach the juniors, saying, "I think I was able to show my juniors what I had done with confidence, but I couldn't win a medal at the Olympics with my own method, so I want to try and error with a sense of mission to see what form I can best convey my experience."
At the end of the press conference, Mr. Tadahiro Nomura, a three-time Olympic champion in judo and the general manager of his company, gave him a bouquet of flowers to end his 3-year active career.