Evgeni Plushenko is still on his way back from back surgery, but he’s in top form when it comes to confidence, speaking in the third person to a Russian news outlet.
“If everything goes all right the Sochi Olympics will be my curtain-closing event,” Plushenko, the three-time Olympic medalist, told Russia’s media project “2014 Olympic squad,” according to Agence France-Presse. “And every figure skating lover would be able to see his own Plushenko there — the 18-year-old, the 25-year-old and, finally, today’s Plushenko.”
Plushenko, 30, had previously said he intends to retire after the Sochi Olympics, his fourth Games. Plushenko won silver in 2002 behind countryman Alexei Yagudin, dominated for gold in 2006 and earned another silver in 2010 behind American Evan Lysacek.
In Sochi, Plushenko will try to become the second skater to win four Olympic singles figure skating medals, joining Swede Gillis Grafstrom, who won gold in 1920, 1924 and 1928 and silver in 1932.
Plushenko said he’s already practicing quadruple jumps in training and only needs two or three warm-up events before the Olympics. Those could include the ISU Grand Prix event in Moscow (Nov. 22-24), the Russian National Championships (Dec. 22-27 in Sochi) and the European Championships (January in Budapest, Hungary).
Russia only qualified one male skater for the Sochi Olympics via Maxim Kovtun‘s 17th-place finish at the World Championships in March. There isn’t as much elite depth in the country’s program now as there was in the 1990s and early 2000s, a stretch where a Unified Team or Russia skater won five straight Olympic golds.
Plushenko seems confident of attaining the one berth available despite pulling out of the 2013 European Championships after the short program, where he placed sixth, citing a back injury. He had surgery in January and missed the World Championships.
“A relapse of my back injury is the only thing that can prevent me from achieving a top-class result at Sochi,” he said.
Plushenko said he will perform a free skate that’s a mix of his previous programs — a best of Plushenko, if you will. It was the idea of his coach, Alexei Mishin.
“We decided that it would be an original move and a spectacular finish to my career,” Plushenko said.
