Veteran athletes to watch at Beijing 2022

Akito Watabe

Akito Watabe is eyeing his fifth Olympic Winter Games at Beijing 2022. The 33-year-old is a two-time silver medalist in the men’s individual normal hill 10-kilometer event, reaching the podium at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and again four years later in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Watabe made his Games debut at Turin 2006 while he was still in high school in Hakuba, Nagano prefecture, one of Japan’s skiing hotbeds. He was overall Nordic combined World Cup champion for the 2017-18 season, becoming only the second Japanese athlete to achieve the feat.