French sports magazine L'Equipe said today that 2006 Olympic champion Evgeny Plushenko of Russia has announced he is making a comeback to figure skating, with intent to compete at the Vancouver Olympics a year from now.
Plushenko, a three-time world champion, hasn't competed since he won the gold medal in Turin and has been busy with other ventures.
I think this is great; Plushenko will definitely liven up the mens' competitions and it'll be great to see whether he's still got it.However, it's very difficult to see him motivation behind coming back. He had double knee surgery in 2007, with complications, and doing quads on top of these can't be good for his long-term health. He claims his return to aid Russian figure skating, but the article from globeandmail.com is not convinced.
Shortly after Russian male skaters bombed at the 2007 world championships in Tokyo, Plushenko announced that he was returning to the competitive wars to because he was concerned that Russians would lose three spots for the following world championships - and maybe even the Vancouver Olympics - if he didn't come back and bridge the gap until younger Russian men found their footing.
But he didn't come back.
For the past couple of years, he's had no Grand Prix assignments.
First, he'd have to win his way back onto the Russian team by competing at his national championships next December.
L'Equipe says “local media” - assumed to be those in Russia - say he's decided to defend his Olympic title.
We'll see.
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