‘I Don’t Think I Could Have Performed’: Yuzuru Hanyu Reveals The Major Setback He Faced in Practice at Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 Before Clash With Nathan Chen

American figure skater Nathan Chen won the men’s free figure skating event at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. Moreover, Chen set a world record in points in the short program which preceded the final event.

Chen’s main rival, Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, had bagged the gold medal consecutively at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. Thus, it was also Hanyu’s chance to make history with 3 consecutive Gold Medals.

In order to achieve that, Hanyu decided to attempt an unprecedented jump at the Olympics- the quadruple axel. He practiced night and day in order to land the jump, but sadly, on the final day, failed twice.

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In the post-event conference, after Nathan Chen won his gold medal, it appeared that Yuzuru Hanyu was icing his ankle. Hanyu, who finished fourth behind his compatriots Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno, had failed to bag a single medal.

No matter how one chooses to see it, it was the quadruple axel that spelled doom for Yuzuru Hanyu at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022. Hanyu had been obsessed with delivering the jump successfully, something no one had ever done before.

It appears Yuzuru Hanyu had been performing while injured in his free skate performance. In fact, another photo reveals how Hanyu had been sitting in the conference room with the ice pack on his foot.

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Hanyu, speaking to a Japanese news media outlet, revealed that he skated “without much feeling in (his) right foot”. In fact, he also revealed that he had no sensation in his right leg prior to the free skate program.

Furthermore, he expressed that he was only able to “finish it because of this surge in adrenaline”. Clearly, the two-time Gold medalist was ready to put his body on the line to win again.

Nathan Chen applauded Hanyu for attempting the quadruple axel

No one had ever performed the risky quadruple axel successfully. Thus, when Hanyu took to the ice, and the world looked on, he attempted the jump not once, but twice.

Hanyu only did the second jump because his first attempt failed. Sadly, even the subsequent attempt was unsuccessful, and the points he lost owing to the attempts were certainly enough to spell defeat for the gold medalist.

Chen had nothing but praise for Hanyu and his competitors. In fact, he lauded Hanyu for having attempted the jump, regardless of the result. In that vein, Chen referred to bronze medalist Shoma Uno, who successfully landed the quadruple flip.

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Chen admitted that he did not believe the quadruple flip was possible a few years ago, but seeing Shoma Uno do it successfully convinced him that a successful quadruple axel is not too far away.