World championship finalist Fuko Umekawa has announced her retirement from Japan’s national track programme, citing both exhaustion and financial pressures.
Writing on Instagram following her fifth-place finish in Ballerup, the 33-year old declared she was ‘not satisfied with it at all’. So today’s statement, posted on the website of Team Rakuten K Dreams, has come as quite the surprise.
Instead, she will focus on keirin racing in her home country, following her teammate Riyu Ohta through the exit.
‘There are many reasons to retire from competition,’ she writes (via online translation). ‘If I were to mention them one by one, I would lose track of time, but one of the reasons for retiring is the feeling that I have run out of energy, that I can no longer take on this life-destroying stage.
‘I felt like I was sponsoring myself by riding, winning, and earning money in keirin. Taking on (UCI) competition reduces your opportunities to ride in keirin, and reduces your income.
‘As I have said many times, I would not have been able to compete without keirin. Even though it may become difficult to earn money temporarily, I thought that racing internationally was a great opportunity to expand my horizons.
‘I wanted to make a choice that would not only end with the self-satisfaction of “seeing the world,” but also that if I could make the most of that experience and depth as an athlete, I would be able to say that I made the right choice.’
A former speed skater, Umekawa graduated from Japan’s keirin school in 2017. The keirin.jp website shows she has won 63% of her 322 pro races, with reported earnings of US$ 400,000 to the end of 2023.
Umekawa won the women’s title at last November’s Kokura Keirin Festival, recording her 200th career win in just 315 races; and went on to finish second behind Mina Sato in December 2023’s Girls Grand Prix.
Her decision is another demonstration of the finances of top-level UCI competition, described as ‘unsustainable‘ by DerbyWheel CEO James Pope earlier this year – and the irresistible pressure on Japanese riders lucky enough to have the option of a professional career back home.