Ski jumper Noriaki Kasai secured his place at an eighth consecutive Winter Olympics on Saturday, the Ski Association of Japan announced.
The association's qualifying period for men's ski jumpers to the Pyeongchang Winter Games ended with Saturday's 11th World Cup event of the season, where Kasai finished 48th.
If Kasai participates in February's Games, he will become the sole record holder for most Winter Olympic appearances. He currently shares the record with Russian luger Albert Demchenko.
Kasai made his Olympic debut at the 1992 Albertville Games in France, and has appeared at every event since. He has won three medals, including team silver at Lillehammer in 1994, and silver for the large hill and team bronze at Sochi in 2014.
He also holds numerous other records, including the oldest Olympic ski jumping medalist, oldest ski jumping World Cup individual event winner, and most appearances in the Nordic World Ski Championships by an individual ski jumper.
The 45-year-old, who made his World Cup debut in 1988 in Sapporo, has 17 individual World Cup victories and has made the podium 63 times. He won the Ski Flying World Championships in 1992 and the overall ski jumping title at the Nordic Tournament in 1999.
Other Japanese men expected to qualify for the Olympics in ski jumping are the Kobayashi brothers, Junshiro and Ryoyu, Daiki Ito, and Taku Takeuchi. The men's ski jumping squad is scheduled to be announced on Jan. 11.