The Japanese still don’t have You have reached the starting line Six weeks before the Winter Games, he prepares for his first competition since April.

The 27-year-old, who was injured in training in early November due to a ligament in his right ankle, will compete in this week’s Japan Championships in Saitama. The short program will be held on Friday and the free program on Sunday.

The 2014 and 2018 Olympic champion began training on Thursday.

Canadian coach Brian Orser with Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu in 2018

Photo: Getty Images / Markku Ulander

I did what I planned to do. It was a matter of traversing the axis. I don’t focus on rotation, he told an audience of reporters. He would like to try a four-axle axle, a leap that has never worked out in formal competition.

I think the 2022 Olympics could be the end of it all, so I come here fully intent on taking it head on., he added.

Hanyu is racing against the clock with his Canadian coach Brian Orser, ready for Beijing where he could become the third skater in history, after Sweden’s Giles Grafstrom and Norway’s Sonya Hennie, to win the Olympic title three times. in a row.

In 2018, Yuzuru Hanyu prepared for the games under very similar circumstances: a left ankle injury, a withdrawal from the Japan Championships, and a narrow return to the Olympics where he retained his title.