| Yuzuru Hanyu | |
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| Yuzuru Hanyu article series | |
| Skating career | |
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Yuzuru Hanyu, a former competitive figure skater from Japan, participated in the Winter Olympic Games three times, winning two gold medals (in 2014 and 2018) and placing fourth in 2022. In 2014, he became the first Asian men's singles skater to win at the Olympics. At 19 years old, he was also the youngest male skater to win the Olympic title since American Dick Button in 1948. In 2018, Hanyu became the first male single skater in 66 years to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals since Button in 1952.
In his three Olympic seasons, Hanyu skated to three different short and free skate programs each, with their background and making being broadly covered by the media. In the first season, 2013–14, he became the first Asian and second skater across all disciplines to win the Olympics, Worlds, and the Grand Prix Final in the same season, after Russian Alexei Yagudin in 2001–02. Hanyu also set two world records in the short program, becoming the first skater to score above 100 points in that competition segment, at the 2014 Winter Olympics. In 2017–18, he set another short program record of 112.72 points, which remained the standing record in the old +3/-3 GOE judging system.[note 1] At the 2017 Rostelecom Cup, he also landed his first quadruple Lutz jump in competition. In his third and last Olympic season, 2021–22, Hanyu won his sixth national title and went for the quadruple Axel jump for the first time, with his attempt at the Beijing Olympics being the closest in competition up to then. On July 19, 2022, he announced his decision to conclude his competitive figure skating career and turn professional.
For his achievements at the Winter Olympics, Hanyu was bestowed with the People's Honor Award by the prime minister of Japan (2018) as well as two Medals of Honor with Purple Ribbon (2014, 2018). He also received the Kikuchi Kan Prize for his accomplishments in figure skating (2022), including his back-to-back titles at the Winter Games. Two monuments honoring his Olympic wins were installed at the International Center Station in his hometown of Sendai. Hanyu was featured in various prestigious lists, such as Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia (2018), and made it to ESPN's top 10 of the greatest Olympians of the 21st century. In 2022, he was ranked sixth in the list of most-searched athletes on Google Search worldwide.
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