[2011.11.09] Shuzo's column - Hodo Station: Yuzuru Hanyu, the 16-year-old quadruple jumper

[yuzurujenn]

*machine translation, inaccuracies exist*

 

2011.11.09

 

Source: https://www.shuzo.co.jp/164-2/

Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20201116072108/https://www.shuzo.co.jp/164-2/

 

 

Hodo Station: Yuzuru Hanyu, the 16-year-old quadruple jumper

 

The person we interviewed this time was figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, 16 years old.

 

Hanyu, who is said to be the next generation ace, has one of the greatest weapons: his quadruple jump!

 

The success rate is amazing.

 

At the Grand Prix Series China competition, although he ended up finishing in a close 4th place, the only one who succeeded in landing quads in both the short and the free programs was Yuzuru Hanyu.

 

What’s more, his success rate in practice has been steadily rising, and he says he can easily land about 8 out of 10, which is incredibly promising!

 

However, this quadruple jump is something he acquired by overcoming great hardship.

 

That was when Hanyu’s home rink in Sendai was damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11 this year.

 

It’s said that Hanyu was in the middle of training at the time, and the ice was rippling, all the rental skates fell over, and even skates flew through the air.

 

The scene was so far from normal that he says it made him lose sense of what “normal” even meant.

 

Hanyu suddenly lost the training rink he had been going to since he was four years old, his home also suffered major damage, and he ended up living in an evacuation shelter.

 

At that time, he says he wasn’t in a situation where he could think of himself as a single athlete, but rather, he thought it was important to live each day as a single human being.

 

Just getting through daily life was all he could manage.

 

He even thought he might have to take a break from skating for two or three years.

 

But about a month after the earthquake, in early April, he had the opportunity to participate in a charity performance for the Great East Japan Earthquake held in Kobe.

 

Hanyu says he skated with the intention of doing his very best and expressing who he was at that moment.

 

Seeing people moved to tears by his performance, or people giving him heartfelt applause—each and every cheer made him truly happy, and he thought, “There’s probably no other sport that can move people this deeply.”

 

And so, he decided, “I’ll skate again.”

 

After that, offers for charity shows flooded in, and in just half a year, he participated in as many as 60 performances.

 

However, Hanyu decided to approach this hectic schedule with a positive mindset.

 

Having lost his home rink and with no environment to train in, he would arrive early at the performance venues to be allowed to practice on the rink there.

 

And, although it was unusual, he even attempted quadruple jumps during the shows.

 

Despite experiencing the earthquake and being placed in adversity, he kept working positively to refine his quadruple jump.

 

It was precisely because he overcame this hardship that he was able to truly see the path to mastering the quad jump.

 

The future and dream that Hanyu is looking toward is to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

 

Moreover, he says that the gold medal is not the goal, but rather the starting point. What an incredible 16-year-old.

 

If the gold medal is the beginning, then what comes after that?

 

That is because, even ten years from now, the scars of the earthquake surely will not have healed.

 

Precisely because of that, he wants to offer support through his skating.

 

Hanyu has a clear goal for ten years in the future, and a solid set of personal beliefs. He is already independent.

 

He really didn’t seem like a 16-year-old at all.

 

Truly, a promising athlete has emerged!