On the empty and silent icy surface, a prince stands still, wings ready to fly. With ethereal music immersing him in his world – serenely, peacefully – he begins his rhythmic dance.  He leaps to the sky and flows back to earth. The prince finishes his dance, strokes the ice, and deeply kisses his hand. 

Yuzuru Hanyu uses free skating to express his life and his relationship with figure skating– A story of triumph and tribulation leading a born to skate to new ‘golden’ heights.

Yuzuru Hanyu was born in 1994, in Sendai, Japan— a small city with snow everywhere. Probably because of the cold weather, or weak physical condition, Hanyu suffered from asthma since the age of two.

In order to fight asthma, his mother wanted him to practice figure skating because it’s the most unlikely sport to inhale dust and build a healthy body. Thus, at the age of 4, he started his skating journey with his sister at a nearby rink. 

Riding the ice day after day, he fell in love with skating and started a competitive journey on the edge of an ice knife. 

That eleven-year-old boy who has the same hairstyle as his idol– the “ice Tsar” Plushenko, shyly but confidently stated his goal in the early interview–the Olympic Gold medal. 

At the age of 19, Hanyu won the gold medal at the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014, becoming the first Asian male figure skating champion. 

In February 2018, he won the men’s singles gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, becoming the first skater in 66 years to win the men’s singles gold medal at the Winter Olympics. 

Yuzuru Hanyu broke the world record 19 times, and he was the first person to complete the quadruple jump with a back loop in an international competition that was recognized by ISU (International Skating Union). He is also the first person to win the Grand Slam of men’s singles in the Olympic Games, World Championships, Grand Prix Finals, four continents Championships, World Youth Championships, youth Finals, and other international events in figure skating history. 

With the promise he made at an early age, that shy and tender boy in the interview has achieved the status that even makes Plushenko exclaim: “Once I was his idol, now he is my idol.”

Hanyu’s huge accomplishments in figure skating lead to his dominant status in the world figure skating community. 

Sean Doran, a Skyline Humanities teacher and also a big fan of figure skating, shared his excitement about watching Hanyu’s skating in-person back in Japan many years ago. 

“I remember watching his performance when I was living in Japan,” He said, “I was like,  this man is the real deal, he is so amazing. He’s like the wind and water, together, just flowing constantly in this combination of calmness and serenity.”

Additionally, he pushed Figure skating to another level, which is with more athletic beauty to the figure skating performance. He paved the way for a lot of the newer stylist skating that people see from men’s skating performances.

“Hanyu is a really unique and impactful athlete in figure skating history,” Doran continued. “Even though it is common to have skaters who try to do more skill-focused performances in their short program and free skate, Hanyu is really the first person to push the bounds of athleticism on the ice.” 

Indeed, Hanyu challenges the perception of the human body’s capability to perform more and more difficult feats of strength and agility in ice skating all the time. This athletic spirit leads to his determination of challenging himself to perform quadruple Axel on the stage— no single figure skater had ever successfully landed in the competition before. 

Of the six jumps in figure skating, the Quadruple Axel is considered the most difficult, because it’s the only one that takes off forward and needs the extra half-turn. It’s named for Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen, who in 1882 was reported to have landed the first one — a single with one-and-a-half rotations — while wearing speed skates. The quadruple jump is considered the ultimate in the history of countless figure skaters, who typically take off and land on the ice in about 0.7 seconds. It takes them to complete a 1440-degree turn in all four circles, landing with an impact force seven times their own weight.

The “Godfather” of Russian figure skating Alexei Mishin once said in an interview, that no one can complete a quadruple Axel in his lifetime, because it’s beyond the limits of the human body. 

Despite its difficulty, performing the quadruple Axel is also not a worthy jump in the actual competition. According to the ISU (International Skating Union), the Quadruple Axel is only 1 point more than the second hardest jump–quadruple Lutz, but the difficulty levels of these two jumps are totally different. An explanation of its points granting rule is that the ISU does not even think that any athlete can successfully perform a quadruple Axel in an official competition.

After becoming the youngest figure skater to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals following his win in 2018 in Pyeongchang, Yuzuru Hanyu, said in the interview that the Quadruple Axel would be the new goal that he is trying to achieve in his skating career. 

“ I have achieved what I can achieve, I have done what I can do.” Hanyu said in the interview, “The only thing left is the goal described in my childhood– all my motivation now is only Quadruple Axel”. 

Yuzuru Hanyu never sees figure skating as just “winning”. He believes that he has the mission to challenge the quadruple Axel, and he must be the person.

In these four years, Yuzuru Hanyu kept trying to quadruple Axel and in the opening practices, but every time, he fell down hard on the ice. Jump, spin, fall and jump again. One of his fans counted, once in 13 minutes, he made six quadruple Axel attempts. 

“Hanyu’s major opponent is himself,” Doran explained. “I think any athlete who is at the top of the world, they are always playing against themselves, they’re always trying to beat themselves, being one day stronger, one day faster than the older self.”

On February 6th, Yuzuru Hanyu arrived in Beijing for the Winter Olympic games with the determination to successfully land the Quadruple Axel on the world stage. 

In the short program, he had an accident on his first jump–missing a quadruple jump because his skate got stuck in a hole in the ice, but he quickly adjusted and completed the rest of the routine almost flawlessly, as if the first missed jump didn’t phase him at all. With the points of 95.15, he entered free skating in 8th place. 

On the morning of February 9, Yuzuru Hanyu took part in his last official ice training before the free skate. He tried 4A again, but he fell down again. Before leaving the skating rink, he bent down and touched the ice before he leave.

“Each time, I bet my life on figure skating.” That figure skating prince whispered to himself. “That’s why I was born here. I was born for my figure skating”. 

With the music of “Heaven and Earth”, he danced freely, expressed himself freely. approaching the first jump– quadruple Axel, everyone in Beijing’s Capital Indoor Center watched on intently. Unfortunately, Hanyu fell down. The fall drew a gasp from the crowd, followed by a respectful clap of appreciation. This is the first time a skater try Quadruple Axel in the official competition.

Hanyu has two falls in the free skating performance. One is the historic quadruple Axel, the other is quadruple salchow. With the 4th place in total rank, Hanyu lost the chance to win the third winter Olympics championship.

After the performance, Hanyu said in the interview: “I feel that this was the best Quadruple Axelthat the Hanyu Yuzuru from today could do,” he said. “Towards the end of it, I thought ‘ah, this is how it feels,’ but the landing is still difficult to do.”

Even if Hanyu failed to land the Quadruple, his Olympic and athletic spirit of giving without fear and reservation really won the recognition of all audiences in the world.

“What I really admire is the fighting spirit in his bones,” gushes the 20-year-old Chinese fan, His willingness to leave his all on the ice has bowled me over.” 

Just as this Chinese fan said, Hanyu’s attempt at landing Quadruple Axel has been a significant jump in the whole world of figure skating history. Hanyu showed us the spirit of Olympic athletics to the greatest extent. 

“Anyone who enjoys figure skating, and loves figure skating, and understands the history of figure skating will always know exactly who Yuzuru Hanyu was,” Doran said. “ even if he retires and doesn’t make the next Olympics, his legacy will be forever solidified in the way that he is driven the sport.”