Kim Yu-na (Yonhap News)
Figure skating star Kim Yu-na will enter the upcoming national championships as her final prep event before the 2014 Winter Olympics, officials said Monday.
The Korea Skating Union (KSU) said Kim, the reigning Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion, has signed up to compete at the 2014 national championships, to be held from Jan. 3-5 in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, northwest of Seoul.
It will be Kim's final competition before the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia in February. She will attempt to become just the third woman to repeat as the Olympic figure skating champion.
Kim won the national title in January this year before claiming her second world title in Canada two months later.
Kim made her successful season debut earlier this month in Croatia, overwhelming the competition to capture the Golden Spin of Zagreb, a minor event. She had missed her two scheduled appearances during the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix season in October and November, after suffering a foot injury in September.
After returning from Croatia, Kim had said she would consider entering one more event before Sochi, and that it would most likely be the national championships.
Kim has already said Sochi will be her last Olympics.
In winning the Croatian event, Kim scored 204.49 points in total, the fifth-highest mark of her career.
She earned 73.37 points in the short program, the best by anyone this season, despite making a rare landing mistake on her double axel. In the free skate, Kim earned 131.12 points to lead the field, but also fell on the first jump of her opening triple lutz-triple toe loop combination.
Kim has said she is slowly working herself into top shape and that she hopes to peak in time for the Olympics. (Yonhap News)