Olympic bronze medalist Carolina Kostner said she plans to return to competitive figure skating in September for the first time in more than two years, according to Italian media.
“I’ve talked to my team, and we’ve decided to stage the comeback in September, I need more time,” Kostner said, according to Italian wire service ANSA’s translation. “I feel light and serene, but coming back earlier would have been premature.”
Kostner, 28 and a six-time World Championships medalist, hasn’t competed since taking bronze at the March 2014 World Championships, one month after she became the second-oldest Olympic women’s singles medalist since 1928 in Sochi, according to sports-reference.com.
In January, Kostner finished second to retired Canadian 2010 Olympic bronze medalist Joannie Rochette in a free-skate only exhibition in Japan, after serving a backdated 21-month suspension for helping ex-boyfriend and Olympic race-walking champion Alex Schwazer evade drug testers in 2012.
Kostner said before the Schwazer controversy that she would take the 2014-15 season off.
On Thursday, Kostner repeated that she could try to compete in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games.
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