BERLIN (AP) — Newly crowned world figure skating champions Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin have committed to staying around to fight for the medals at the 2030 Winter Olympics.
The German pair, who won bronze at the Milan Cortina Olympics, will be 30 by the time the next Winter Games in the French Alps begin.
Olympic gold medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan left on a high by retiring last month, part of a broader shakeup as several of the world’s best pairs either retire or split to seek new partners.
“We decided to continue our career because we both think that we haven’t yet reached our potential as a pair and we can still develop,” Hase said in a statement Friday. “We plan to compete through the four years to the 2030 Olympic Games. The aim is to stay competitive with the best pairs.”
Hase and her Russia-born partner Volodin, who gained German citizenship last year, won the world title in March, just over a month after the Olympics. That continued an emerging rivalry with Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia, who edged Hase and Volodin to the European title earlier in the season. Miura and Kihara didn’t skate at worlds.
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