Japan’s Saori Yoshida, whose bid for a fourth straight Olympic wrestling title was foiled by American Helen Maroulis, has gone back on plans to retire and wants to compete in a fifth Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, according to Kyodo News.
“I’ll take time and consider,” Yoshida said, according to the report. “I’d probably have said I’d quit [if the next Olympics was not in Tokyo]. There will never be an opportunity like this, and I’d like to take part if I’m able.”
Yoshida, 33, could take a break from competition and return later in the Olympic cycle.
“I still have four years, and one way of thinking is to aim to make the national team after not competing for one or two years,” she said, according to the report.
Yoshida planned ahead of the Rio Games that she would retire afterward, wrestling experts said earlier this summer.
Everything changed in the Rio 53kg final, when Maroulis handed Yoshida her first loss in four years, her third senior international loss in more than a decade of wrestling at that level and her first defeat in 17 combined Olympics and world championships.