Japanese figure skater Mao Asada poses for a photo at the National Training Center, an intensive training base for figure skating, at Chukyo University in Toyota, central Japan November 27, 2013. Asada, 23, the only woman to have landed three of the complicated triple Axel jumps in competition, is a prime contender for gold at the Sochi Games, where she will again face long-standing rival and reigning Olympic champion Kim Yuna of South Korea. Yet as recently as 2012 Asada thought about quitting, following several uneven seasons of changing her skating style from the bottom up in the wake of losing gold to Kim at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, as well as her mother's sudden death. To match Interview OLYMPICS-FIGURE-SKATING/ASADA Picture taken November 27, 2013. REUTERS/Issei Kato (JAPAN - Tags: SPORT FIGURE SKATING OLYMPICS)