Yuzuru Hanyu - "National Treasure of the Ice Arena", Japan's pride is its own tragedy

Yuzuru is a living legend of figure skating, both now and in the future. With the ability to combine technical movements with high difficulty in a smooth and artistic way, Yuzuru is considered the "gold standard" in his discipline.

On July 19, Yuzuru Hanyu held a press conference, announcing his retirement from the top sports career. Yuzuru Hanyu said struggling with injuries and poor performance was the reason for his early retirement.

Retired at the age of 28, Yuzuru Hanyu closed his professional skating career with many glory but also regrets.

Great Japanese Athlete

Yuzuru was born in 1994, in Sendai (Japan), a small city in the East of Japan, where frequent natural disasters and facilities are not too developed. The whole city has only one skating rink located in a commercial center, but this rink has closed several times, making Yuzuru unable to practice like many athletes of the same age.

According to NHK, Yuzuru Hanyu has been exposed to figure skating since the age of 4. His family wants to improve his fitness through sports and relieve his severe asthma.

Yuzuru Hanyu quickly showed natural talent. At the age of 9, he entered the national ice skating competition for young athletes and won the championship. At the age of 16, he won 12th place at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships. At this time, Yuzuru Hanyu was hailed as Japan's "figure skating prodigy".

During his peak competitive career, Yuzuru Hanyu brought home two gold medals at the Winter Olympics for Japan in 2014 and 2018. According to NHK, Yuzuru Hanyu is the first Asian athlete to achieve it. this achievement.

He also won the World Figure Skating Championship twice in 2014 and 2017, and won the Grand Prix Final four times. With particularly outstanding achievements, Yuzuru Hanyu was once awarded the National Honorary Award by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He is the youngest person to receive this prestigious award.

The Japan Times rated Yuzuru Hanyu as Japan's greatest artistic athlete. He is considered a legendary master of art in skating.

Trade for success

Coach Nanami Abe said that behind Yuzuru Hanyu's success is a trade-off. He worked hard and risked his life in search of glory.

According to Nanami Abe, Yuzuru Hanyu trains at twice the intensity of a normal athlete because of his asthma. Even when injured, Yuzuru Hanyu also went to the ice rink to perform exercises to adjust expressions and posture.

"He lives as if his whole life is only figure skating. I don't remember how many times Yuzuru Hanyu has treated the ligament injury," female coach Nanami Abe said.

NHK commented that Yuzuru Hanyu is a daredevil skater in contrast to his romantic and fragile appearance on the ice rink. Because she wants to have an impressive performance, Yuzuru Hanyu invests a lot of effort, even taking the risk of serious injury to conquer difficult and dangerous movements.

During his third visit to the Winter Olympics, Yuzuru Hanyu tried his hand at the 4A (Axel Jump) technique, which had never been successfully performed by any athlete. 4A is an extremely difficult technique in figure skating. To complete the move, the athlete needs to do 4 and a half turns in the air (1,620 degrees) in 0.7 seconds. It is estimated that 4A jumpers must bear 6-7 times more body weight when hitting the ice.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Yuzuru Hanyu performed this move in the freestyle event. Although the Japanese sports star fell, but the International Skating Union (ISU) still recognized his achievement. By not afraid to confront difficult techniques, Yuzuru Hanyu carved his name into Olympic history.

According to Sina, the fierce and tenacious competitive spirit helps Yuzuru Hanyu have tens of millions of fans around the world, especially in Japan and China. The audience once created "Pooh Bear Rain" at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang (Korea) to express their love for Yuzuru Hanyu.

In 2014, the "ice rink prince" shocked when he decided to continue competing in the World Figure Skating Grand Prix in Shanghai (China) despite multiple injuries. He had a collision before the match with the host country athlete.

Sina describes the severity of Yuzuru Hanyu's injuries as "blood red on ice".

He won the silver medal. After compressing competition pain and being taken to the hospital for treatment, the male athlete was diagnosed with a serious abdominal injury.

The Chinese have always hated and hated Japan, but only Yuzuru Hanyu is an exception, the Chinese people's love for him is more than any famous domestic or international star. That's why, every time Yuzuru performs, there are millions of Chinese people who can only exclaim one sentence, "So falling in love with the enemy's son is such a feeling".

Tortured by trauma

During a media meeting on the afternoon of July 19, the figure skater shared that she came to this decision during the treatment and rehabilitation of her ankle injury after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

"After returning home from the Beijing Winter Olympics, I couldn't skate anymore. That's when I thought about leaving the professional ice rink, I myself can't compete at the top forever," Yuzuru Hanyu share.

He added: "I have devoted myself to the professional figure skating path. I don't feel sad. I will continue to stick with the ice rink, but in a different way. I no longer set boundaries. limit myself in the title arena. I think I can develop in many different ways, in many different places."

According to NHK, Yuzuru Hanyu has struggled with injuries for many years. His right ankle was overloaded, no longer guaranteed to play at the top.

The news site said that constant injuries, dissatisfaction with the constantly changing competition rules made the performance not as expected and failed with the 4A jump at the last Beijing Winter Olympics, killing the event. determined with Yuzuru Hanyu's skating dream.

Before leaving for China to attend the Olympics, Yuzuru Hanyu once shared that he did not care about defending the gold medal or not. He aims to complete the 4A jump - the last big mission. "Titles no longer mean anything to me," the athlete said.

Sharing about future plans, Yuzuru Hanyu said that even though he no longer competes in professional sports, he will still appear in figure skating shows when physical conditions allow.

In addition, the "ice rink prince" said he will commercialize his image. In 2018, Yuzuru Hanyu held a commercial show after winning the Pyeongchang Olympic gold medal in Tokyo (Japan).

As the world's top athlete, according to Japan Times, Yuzuru Hanyu has a huge income during his years of playing sports.

In 2021, he earned $6.9 million. At the peak of 2018-2019, Yuzuru Hanyu earned an income of up to 13.4 million USD, ranked 70th among global athletes.

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