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Turin Olympic gold medallist Shizuka Arakawa will not take part in the world figure skating championships to be held in Calgary from March 20-26, the Japanese Skating Federation said Thursday.
The 24-year-old cited her tight schedule, which has forced her to miss practice since she became the only medallist from Japan in the Winter Games.
Yoshie Onda will replace Arakawa, the 2004 world champion, in Calgary, joining Fumie Suguri, who came in fourth in Turin, and Yukari Nakano.
Arakawa made her Olympic debut at 1998 Nagano Games at the age of 16, where the emperor and empress of Japan attended the ladies' free skate and saw her finish 13th.
She did not make it into the 2002 Salt Lake City Games despite finishing second at the Japanese national championships that year.
But she came out of the shadows at the Dortmund world championships in 2004 by winning her first major international championship.
In Turin, Arakawa became the first Japanese figure skater to win an Olympic gold medal, eclipsing Midori Ito's silver medal in Albertville in 1992.
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AFP 091020 GMT 03 06
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