He had missed the last two seasons, including this year’s Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, due to a knee injury and has now conceded it is time to quit.

The highlights of Yuskov’s career were a winning the men’s 1500 metres in 2013, 2015 and 2016 at the World Single Distance Championships and the World Cup 2015-2016 title at the distance 1500m.

He will end his career without an Olympic medal having finished fourth at Sochi 2014 and not being allowed to compete at Pyeongchang 2018.

That was because as a 20-year-old he had tested positive for the recreational drug marijuana and was suspended for two years.

Russian athletes who had a doping infraction to their name were banned from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games as part of the punishment imposed on the country after it was found guilty of state-sponsored doping.

In 2017, Yuskov set a world record for 1500m of 1min 41.02sec, a mark that stood for two years until it was broken by Dutch skater Kjeld Nuis.

Besides his three World Championships gold medals, he won a bronze and silver in the World Allround Championships in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Yuskov also won gold medals in 1500m and the team sprint at the 2018 European Championships.