Japan’s ski jump legend Noriaki Kasai, who made history by competing in his eighth Winter Olympics at the age of 45, says he will “definitely” be at the next Games in Beijing in 2022 – and has predicted he can win another medal.
Kasai, who won Olympic ski jumping medals in 1994 and 2014, fell short in Pyeongchang with his best result coming in Monday night’s team event where he helped Japan to sixth place.
However he says he has no plans to hang up his skis any time soon – and that means plans for a ninth Winter Games in 2022. “I’m not going to try, I will definitely be there,” Kasai said. “I watched the others win medals and it fired me up. I can still keep going. I am by no means finished.”
Some will believe that is wildly optimistic. However Kasai, who was his team’s flagbearer at these Olympics, insisted that he wasn’t able to train as well as he wanted after becoming a overnight star, aged 41, when he won silver in the large hill and bronze in the team in Sochi four years ago.
“I couldn’t train properly the last four years,” he said. “I want to work on my jumps the next four years and perfect them. If I can bring myself to peak form then I can medal as an individual, help the team medal.
“I’m thrilled to have competed for the eighth time, but equally annoyed that I couldn’t win a medal. I only showed half of what I can do here. The other half, I’ll show in four years’ time.”
