50 Fun Facts About Yuzuru Hanyu

In 2012 Hanyu moved to a Toronto club named for skating, curling and which other sport?

Cricket. When he joined the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, his mother moved to Canada with him while the rest of the family stayed in Japan.

Which relative did Hanyu follow onto the ice at four?

His older sister Saya was already taking lessons at their local rink, and four-year-old Yuzuru wanted to do the same.

Which chronic condition, diagnosed at age two, hampered Hanyu's stamina especially as a junior?

Asthma, school and scarce ice time held his training to an hour or two a day until he moved to Canada, where it doubled.

Which sport did Hanyu's father, a junior high school teacher, recommend to him instead of skating?

Baseball. His father had advised a school baseball club; Yuzuru stuck with skating, though he considered switching to baseball when practice got tough.

Which Olympic silver medallist did a young Hanyu challenge to a spin battle when the star visited his home town?

Stephane Lambiel, the 2006 Turin runner-up, was famed for his spins; Hanyu later wrote that taking him on made him resolve to improve his own.

Before Hanyu, his coach in Toronto had guided which skater to an Olympic title?

Yuna Kim won in Vancouver in 2010 under the same coach; four years later Hanyu's Sochi gold gave him champions at back-to-back Winter Games.

What was Hanyu doing when the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011?

Skating at his home rink in Sendai, he ran outside still in his skates, with no time for blade guards; his family then spent three days in an evacuation centre.

Which coach did Hanyu move to Toronto to train with in 2012?

Brian Orser. Hanyu had seen Javier Fernandez become a consistent quad jumper under Orser, and said he went to Toronto to learn the secret.

At which 2010 event did Hanyu land his first quadruple jump, a toe loop, at an ISU competition?

The NHK Trophy was his senior debut at 15: he had added the quad to his programs only that season and still finished just off the podium.

Hanyu's 2012 Worlds bronze came with a free skate to which Baz Luhrmann film's music?

Romeo + Juliet. Despite a tumble mid-routine he climbed from seventh to third on his Worlds debut, and he chose another Romeo and Juliet score for his Sochi gold.

To which Gary Moore track did Hanyu skate the short program that brought his first world records in 2012?

Parisienne Walkways served him so well that he kept it for the Olympic season, and at Sochi it earned the first short program score above 100 points.

Which defending champion did an 18-year-old Hanyu beat to win his first Japanese national title in 2012?

Daisuke Takahashi could not close Hanyu's big short-program lead and lost 285.23 to 280.40; it was the first of four straight national titles for Hanyu.

Who took silver at Sochi 2014 after failing to capitalise on Hanyu's errors in the free skate?

Patrick Chan had the door opened for him but put his hands down on two jumps and botched a third, finishing 4.47 points behind.

At Sochi 2014, Hanyu became the youngest men's Olympic champion since which American great?

Dick Button was 18 when he won in 1948; Hanyu, at 19, took the Sochi title despite falling on his opening jump in the free skate.

Which compatriot did Hanyu edge by just 0.33 points to win his first world title in 2014?

Tatsuki Machida led after the short program in Saitama, with Hanyu only third, before Hanyu's free skate overturned it by a third of a point.

With which Chinese skater did Hanyu collide during the free-skate warm-up at the 2014 Cup of China?

Yan Han and Hanyu both came back minutes later with bandaged chins; Hanyu, his head wrapped in gauze, fell five times and still finished second.

Which Chopin piece was Hanyu's short program for three seasons, including the 2018 Olympics?

Midway through 2019-20 he shelved that season's programs and went back to Ballade No. 1 in G minor, promptly scoring a world-record 111.82.

Whom does Hanyu portray in his free skate Seimei?

A Heian-era astronomer, Abe no Seimei is the hero of the film Onmyoji; Hanyu took its soundtrack because he wanted a program that was distinctly Japanese.

Two weeks after the first 300-point total, Hanyu raised his record at the Grand Prix Final in which city?

Barcelona. He scored 330.43 there, beating his training partner Javier Fernandez by 37.48 points in the Spaniard's home country.

At the Beijing 2022 Olympics, what did Hanyu say caused him to miss his opening jump in the short program?

A hole in the ice. His blade caught it on take-off, so a planned quadruple Salchow became a single in the opening seconds of his program.

Which quadruple jump did Hanyu become the first to land in competition, at the 2016 Autumn Classic?

Quad loop. He landed it in his first competition back from a foot ligament injury that had kept him off the ice for two months that spring.

Which Japanese skating star began her career at the same home rink as Hanyu?

Shizuka Arakawa began at the same rink; a year after her 2006 Olympic gold it reopened from a two-year closure, giving the young Hanyu his home ice back.

To which Prince hit did Hanyu skate his 2016-17 short program?

Let's Go Crazy. Hanyu said the program felt like a live concert that only the audience could complete, adding: 'I want to be their rock star.'

Which free skate, set to Joe Hisaishi's music, won Hanyu the 2017 world title with a record score?

Hope and Legacy. Only fifth after the short program, more than ten points off the lead, he skated it cleanly to overturn the deficit.

How did Hanyu injure his right ankle three months before the 2018 Olympics?

A fall on a quad Lutz in practice damaged an ankle ligament; his very next competition was the Olympic short program, which he led.

Which Japanese teammate took silver behind Hanyu when he defended his Olympic title at Pyeongchang 2018?

Shoma Uno completed a Japanese one-two in what was the 1,000th medal event in Winter Olympic history; Hanyu had skated on painkillers for a damaged ankle.

Which jump did Hanyu announce as his next goal immediately after winning in Pyeongchang?

The quadruple Axel appealed, he said, 'because nobody else has' done one; in Beijing in 2022 his attempt became the first to be recognised as that jump in competition.

To which two idols did Hanyu pay tribute with his 2018-19 programs Otonal and Origin?

Johnny Weir and Evgeni Plushenko had skated to the same music years earlier; Hanyu asked Plushenko's blessing before reworking his Tribute to Nijinsky.

Which title did Hanyu win in Seoul in February 2020 to complete the first men's singles Super Slam?

The Four Continents Championships had eluded him three times, each ending in silver; winning it completed his set of every major junior and senior title.

Which Italian fashion house named Hanyu a brand ambassador in 2024?

Gucci. A year earlier, a photo exhibition of Hanyu wearing the label had been the opening show at its new gallery in Tokyo's Ginza district.

Hanyu's first senior short program, White Legend, was a violin arrangement of music from which ballet?

Swan Lake. Violinist Ikuko Kawai recorded the arrangement, and Hanyu brought the program back for the exhibition gala after his Sochi gold.

Hanyu's 2023-24 solo tour Repray built its story around which theme?

Video games. He contrasted a game you can play over and over with a life you live only once, and skated to music from Final Fantasy and Undertale.

Where did Hanyu finish at the 2022 Beijing Olympics?

Fourth. He climbed four places in the free skate despite an ankle sprained in practice at the Games, an injury that then kept him out of the World Championships.

What did Hanyu announce at a press conference on July 19, 2022?

He was turning professional, and he bristled at the word retirement: an athlete who turns pro in other sports, he argued, is starting a career, not ending one.

What was the name of Hanyu's 2022 show, the first solo ice show in figure skating history?

Prologue ran 90 minutes with Hanyu alone on the ice for eight programs, jumping quads at competition level throughout.

Hanyu's 2023 solo show Gift was the first ice event ever held at which venue?

Tokyo Dome drew 35,000 for the one-night show, then a record for an ice show; Hanyu said he created it as a gift for anyone who finds themselves alone.

What is Yuzuru Hanyu Notte Stellata, inaugurated in 2023?

An annual earthquake-memorial ice show, it is held each March in a Miyagi arena that served as a morgue after the 2011 tsunami.

What is the title of Hanyu's autobiography series, whose royalties he gives away?

Blue Flames first appeared in 2012, when he was 17, and he has given all its royalties to the ice rink where he learned to skate.

What do Hanyu's fans traditionally throw onto the ice after his performances?

Winnie-the-Pooh bears rain down because a Pooh tissue-box cover has been his rinkside lucky charm since 2010; the toys are then donated to local hospitals and charities.

From which institution did Hanyu graduate in 2020, via an e-school programme in human information science?

Waseda. For his thesis he wired himself to 3D motion-capture sensors and digitised his own triple Axel to test how the technology could help judge skating.

Which distinction, bestowed by Japan's prime minister, did Hanyu become the youngest ever to receive in 2018?

People's Honor Award. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented it in July 2018 for his back-to-back Olympic golds, making him the first figure skater so honoured.

Which jump specialist, once Elvis Stojko's coach, became one of Hanyu's three coaches in Toronto?

Ghislain Briand believed he would never again coach a talent like Stojko and had begun retraining as a financial adviser before returning to the rink.

Which two choreographers created all of Hanyu's short and free programs from 2014 onward?

Jeffrey Buttle and Shae-Lynn Bourne split the work, Buttle on the short programs and Bourne on the free skates; once the pandemic kept Hanyu in Japan, they choreographed remotely.

Which rival beat Hanyu by more than 43 points at the 2019 Grand Prix Final?

Nathan Chen landed five clean quads for a record 335.30; Hanyu, who tried five himself, said: 'Nathan makes me stronger and makes it more fun to skate.'

Which Andrew Lloyd Webber musical supplied Hanyu's free skate music in the injury-hit 2014-15 season?

The Phantom of the Opera. Five weeks after skating it bandaged following a warm-up collision, he used it to defend his Grand Prix Final title.

Hanyu's given name, Yuzuru, literally means what?

Tie the bowstring: the name was chosen to wish him a dignified, upright life, like the taut string of a bow.

Hanyu skated in Kenshi Yonezu's 2025 video for Bow and Arrow, the opening theme of which anime?

Medalist is a figure-skating anime; Hanyu choreographed his own routine for the video, a short-program-length skate with a jump layout harder than any he had competed.

Hanyu's 2020-21 short program was set to which Robbie Williams song?

Let Me Entertain You was put together remotely while the pandemic kept him training alone in Japan, and he debuted it by winning his fifth national title.

Which airline did Hanyu represent as his affiliated club from 2013 until he left competition?

All Nippon Airways. Until he signed with ANA in July 2013, Japan's national champion had competed under the name of his high school.

Which snowboarder ranked just above Hanyu on Google's worldwide list of trending athletes for 2022?

Shaun White, who bowed out at the Beijing Games in the year Hanyu also left competition, was fifth and Hanyu sixth; three tennis stars and Manti Te'o led the list.