YOKOHAMA - Two-time Olympic figure skating singles silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama is hopeful of making his third Winter Games in 2030 as he spends a season away from competition.
At an event at his old junior high school in Yokohama on Thursday, the 23-year-old answered questions from current students regarding dreams and challenges.
"I want to discover a new self ahead of the Olympics in four years' time, making it a time I can feel skating is fun in itself," Kagiyama said.
He won the men's singles silver on his Olympic debut in Beijing in 2022 when he also won the team silver.
There was a chance for a singles gold at the Milan-Cortina Games this February, but Kagiyama placed behind Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov and settled for the same two silver medals he won four years ago.
Recalling his time at the school, however, Kagiyama said making it to even one Olympics was already an achievement.
"With top skaters like Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno around, I was thinking I wouldn't be able to go to a stage like the Olympics," Kagiyama said of his 2022 Games teammates.
"You can only develop by accumulating little by little. It's important to keep believing what you're doing is not wrong."
