TOKYO: Japan’s two-time Olympic determine skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu mentioned he felt “no disappointment” after retiring from festival elderly 27 on Tuesday, bringing the curtain down on one of the crucial game’s maximum glittering careers. The soft-spoken “Ice Prince” turned into the primary guy to win back-to-back Olympic titles in 66 years and is a countrywide icon who’s adopted world wide through adoring enthusiasts.
However he mentioned the time was once proper to bow out after completing fourth at this yr’s Beijing Video games – the place he struggled with damage – pronouncing he was once “no longer wanted any longer” in aggressive skating. “So far as competitions and effects cross, I believe I’ve been in a position to take the entire issues I sought after to take,” Hanyu, wearing a gloomy go well with and bowing deeply as he took to the level, advised a packed press convention in Tokyo.
“I believe I’ve grown in this sort of means that I don’t search that more or less analysis anymore,” he added. Hanyu mentioned he intends to stay his legion of “Fanyu” supporters satisfied through skating in exhibition presentations, and made transparent his discomfort with the speculation of being regarded as retired.
He’s going to now not compete at the level that made him one in every of determine skating’s all-time greats, on the other hand, including that he would “by no means leave out the stress of festival”. “I’ll now not be in comparison with different skaters as a competitor,” he mentioned. “I haven’t any disappointment. I need to proceed to do my best possible.” Together with his swish skating taste and gentle, boyish appears, Hanyu is an icon for his enthusiasts, who bathe the ice with Winnie the Pooh toys after his routines.
He gained his first Olympic singles identify on the 2014 Sochi Video games and overcame damage to retain his crown 4 years later in Pyeongchang. He additionally gained the arena championships in 2014 and 2017 however he has been dogged through damage in recent times, together with an ankle ligament downside that he had to triumph over to win his 2nd Olympic gold. He was once dethroned as Olympic champion in February in Beijing through rival Nathan Chen of the USA, tumbling all the way through his regimen and lacking the rostrum.
‘Heavy burden’
Hanyu mentioned he had regarded as retiring after the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018 however after all made up his thoughts after coming back from Beijing. “I thought of numerous issues at the moment, and I believed I wasn’t wanted anymore in this level,” he mentioned.
Hanyu will pay attention to skating in ice presentations, the place he’ll try to land the fabled quadruple axel bounce that eluded him right through his aggressive profession. He mentioned he would “paintings more difficult” so he may just at some point “land it effectively in entrance of everybody”. Despite the fact that his plans for the long run are nonetheless “obscure”, he mentioned he sought after to “determine techniques to turn folks my skating in some way that’s extra befitting of nowadays’s age”.
“Ice presentations have a tendency to be regarded as one thing chic and a laugh, however I need to stay extra of an athlete,” he mentioned. “I need folks to peer me as I proceed to combat.” Hanyu is a countrywide hero in Japan, the place he turned into the youngest recipient of his nation’s prestigious Folks’s Honor Award in 2018, and his each and every transfer is headline information. However he nonetheless stays one thing of an enigma in spite of the massive consideration, hardly granting interviews and having no social media presence. He mentioned he sought after to “continue to learn”, including that “being Yuzuru Hanyu is a heavy burden”. – AFP