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Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement



photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved

On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda, 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race.

At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai.

After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Berlin Marathon, where she ran 2:20:31 to become the 7th-fastest Japanese woman ever.

Hosoda had hoped that the Olympic trials would be a turning point in her career, but injuries prevented her from running up to her full potential there. "I really wanted to finish it feeling like I'd given it everything I had," she said, and not achieving that motivated her to keep going and target the 2025 Tokyo World Championships.

But the 2025 Tokyo Marathon didn't go as she hoped, and after finishing only 13th she failed to make the Worlds team. Finding herself less disappointed than she had expected, Hosoda took time to reflect on herself and where she was at. "I realized that my running up to then had been driven by trying to live up to the expectations of the people who were supporting me." Realizing that she didn't really feel the pure passion to pursue her goals anymore, she said, "That's when I decided to stop."

Dedicating her 2025-26 season to "expressing thanks to everyone who supported me through me running," Hosoda was 4th in the 5000 m at July's National Championships, then placed 6th in August's Sydney Marathon in 2:23:27 to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials. In November she was named MVP of the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships after running down Japan Post to play a key role in Edion's first-ever national title. "I'm really happy that we were finally able to win and that we could share our joy together," she said.

Hosoda will run Sunday's National Women's Ekiden for the Nagano Prefecture team. Her final race will be the Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon. "I want to go out with a great run so that I can look back with no regrets," she said. "I hope you'll all keep cheering for me until the very end."

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Anonymous said…
It took me by surprise when I heard about her retirement announcement because she had an epic year last year in terms of achievements at all distances. The MGC qualification run in Sydney had me thinking we would have her running up until the MGC race at the very least. However, I recall Hanami Sekine from the JP team also surprising me and retiring after her debut 2018 Nagoya Marathon and also achieving MGC qualification. I understand she retired to pursue a career in teaching. Ai Hosoda's reasons are good because when you lose the fire it is best to call it a day. She finishes on a high with her individual race achievements and her MVP for Edion in the Queen's Ekiden victory last year. I think that is a great way to go and I wish her the best in whatever she pursues next. I hope she has an enjoyable run on Sunday and nice farewell at the Tokyo Marathon in March.
January 9, 2026 at 6:45 AM
Brett Larner said…
Hosoda's announcement was a surprise, but in Sekine's case it was due to an Achilles tendon injury from what I've been told.
January 9, 2026 at 9:54 AM
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