The smiling face of three-times figure skating world champion Mao Asada beamed out of Japan's front pages Tuesday after the Olympic medallist announced she was back in competitive training.

Asada, who has taken a year off from the sport, told reporters she was eager to get back in form.

"I missed the game and I began to think I want to feel the achievement I felt when I did put in good performances," she said at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday.

Three-times world champion Asada said she had started practising this month with her coach. "I'm training to make a full comeback," she said, but added she is "not thinking at the moment" of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Asada decided to take time off after winning the World Figure Skating Championships in Japan last year.

"I had a strong feeling during a season following the Sochi Olympics that I would retire," Asada said. She finished sixth in the 2014 Games.

"I don't have that feeling anymore."

Asada, who won silver at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics said after Sochi that her odds of retiring were fifty-fifty.
Source: AFP