TOKYO - Former world champion and three-time Olympic medalist Shoma Uno will return to competition with former world junior champion Marin Honda in ice dance from the new season, with the pair aiming for the 2030 Winter Olympics, they said Friday.
"Day by day, we are moving forward with strong determination while taking on new challenges," Uno and Honda, who have publicly acknowledged they are in a relationship, said in an Instagram post.
After announcing his retirement in May 2024, Uno performed with Honda, who had also stepped away from competition, as a pair in an ice show series he produced.
"We will continue creating days we can be satisfied with, carrying with us the feelings that only the two of us can share," the pair said in the post, adding that they decided in October 2024 to return to competition.
At a press conference afterward, Honda said, "Since October 2024, we have spent our time preparing ourselves so that we could commit to the sport. Since we're competing, we want to do our best and aim for victory."
Asked why they did not target this season, which included the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Uno said that, as an Olympian, he knows how difficult it is to join the Games after only about a year of preparation.
"We chose to begin in the 2026 season because of our strong desire to seriously pursue the 2030 Winter Olympics as competitors," Uno said, referring to the French Alps Games in four years.
The 28-year-old Uno became the first Japanese figure skater to win back-to-back world titles in 2022 and 2023.
The Nagoya native also won three Olympic medals -- a silver medal in the team event and a men's singles bronze medal at the 2022 Beijing Games, along with a silver medal in the men's event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Kyoto native Honda, 24, won the women's title at the 2016 World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
Among Japanese figure skaters switching to ice dance, Daisuke Takahashi, who won the men's singles bronze at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, teamed up with Kana Muramoto and finished 11th at the 2023 world championships.
