Japanese speed skater Nao Kodaira, the women's 500-meter champion at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, will contest the final race of her career Saturday at the national single-distance championships in her native Nagano Prefecture.More than 4,000 tickets have been sold, and additional tickets were put on sale for the second day of the three-day event at the M-Wave ice arena, where Kodaira is scheduled to compete one last time in the 500.The 36-year-old Kodaira, who forged a famous rivalry and friendship with South Korea's two-time Olympic champion Lee Sang Hwa, attended a practice session Thu…READ FULL ARTICLE
