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Japan's skeleton master makes no bones of age barrier
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-26 20:37
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TOKYO - The oldest member of Japan's Olympic squad spends his time hurtling down an icy chute head first at 130 kilometres per hour, but the 45-year-old is showing few signs of wanting to slow down in the twilight of his career.
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 Kazuhiro Koshi of Japan starts on the natural ice track during the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup tournament in the Swiss mountain resort of St. Moritz January 15, 2010. [Photo/Agencies] |
Instead, skeleton slider Kazuhiro Koshi plans to go out in style at next month's Winter Games in Vancouver despite the dangers of a sport in which intense G-forces will be the least of his worries.
"I'm in it to win it," Koshi told Japanese reporters after returning from a World Cup event in Europe. "All I am thinking of is the gold medal."
Koshi will be the oldest Japanese athlete to appear at a Winter Olympics at the Feb. 12-28 Games but shrugged off question marks over his age and said he was still improving.
"I've really worked on improving my start," said the Nagano-born Koshi, who won his first of four straight Japanese national skeleton titles in 1998.
"At the Olympics, I wanted to make sure I don't lose any ground (to younger sliders) at the start. I'm fully focused on that."
Koshi said walking out at next month's opening ceremony alongside 15-year-old speed skater Miho Takagi, Japan's youngest competitor in Vancouver, would feel strange.
"It will be a bit like going out there with my 13-year-old daughter," he said. "But I'll show you all what an old man can do -- you wait!"
