Two-time Olympic champion Yevgeny Plushenko will return to figure skating competition with an eye on a fifth Olympics in 2018, according to Russian reports.
Here are Russian reports by agency TASS and R-Sport, quoting Plushenko saying he will return to training Monday.
Plushenko, 32, won Olympic silver in 2002, gold in 2006, silver in 2010 and team event gold in 2014, his last competition. He would return to a men’s scene led by Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and World champion Javier Fernandez of Spain.
Plushenko had March 2014 back surgery, returned to training in May and performed in ice shows starting last summer.
In February 2014, Plushenko had announced his retirement after withdrawing before the Olympic men’s short program due to his injured back.
Later in February, he went back on the retirement announcement.
“If need be, I’ll have another 10 operations … I’m not ruling out that I’ll go for a fifth Olympic Games,” he told Reuters during the Sochi Olympics. “I am not ruling out that I want stay in sports, to prove [something] to many [people] and myself.”
In 2006, Lithuanian ice dancers Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas became the first figure skaters to compete in five Olympics.
Plushenko and 1920s and ’30s Swede Gillis Grafstrom are the only four-time Olympic figure skating medalists.
Complicating matters is a proposed Russian law to limit athletes to two Olympics.
