Yuzuru Hanyu Cheer Thread

Alina had kind words for Yuzu at a press conference tonight. "Hanyu is a distinguished athlete and someone to look up to. He has participated with success in two Olympic Games, he is a double Olympic champion, and I would like to thank him very much for being our role model."
From https://twitter.com/sportsjapan/status/967391306505895936

Evgenia also praised Yuzu at the press conference. "I have been watching Hanyu's skating for many, many years and have seen him developing as an athlete and winning all those medals. Definitely he is one of my role models, like many other skaters."
From https://twitter.com/sportsjapan/status/967398872636014592

Aliona Savchenko also mentioned Yuzuru after she won Gold:
"For me, it is everything. I never give up," she said. "Just yesterday somebody texted me and said, 'If Yuzu (Hanyu) in 2017 (at the world championships) goes from fifth place to first, you can too.' And that's right. You never know what can happen. It's all my life, fighting."
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2018/02/15/266480388/savchenko-massot-rally-to-win-olympic-gold-medal

Gold medalist Nao Kodaira cites Yuzuru Hanyu’s heroics as inspiration. “I won the gold medal but I have been watching many disciplines and some athletes can’t quite medal even though they are vibrant and energetic,” said Kodaira, who placed sixth in the 1,500 and won the silver in the 1,000.
“Hanyu-san yesterday managed to get the gold medal so that gave me a lot of courage and really contributed to my race today.” Kodaira powered home in 36.94 seconds to claim victory at a packed Gangneung Oval.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...zuru-hanyus-heroics-inspiration/#.WpHnkB8UqM9
 
Patrick Chan talked about Yuzuru: "After my SP, I got to get to the stand and watched him with my family. Yuzu and I have had gone through 4, 5 years together from Sochi to now. It's amazing how I've been able to evolve my perception of watching him. At first, it was like a competitor, a nemesis, and I hated him. But now - and that's something to be proud of for me, I was able to sit there and said wow, I appreciate this skate. He's truly deserves this. And he skated the best out of every other man in that event. And I tip my hat off to him because he really has proven that he's the best in the world on that day. So, it's amazing to watch, and he really commanded that ice that day."
From https://twitter.com/crazykuroneko/status/965205981868253184
 
A great story about Hanyu and his old friend. From https://ameblo.jp/ecovail/entry-12351478325.html

Yuki Sakata (23) used to go to the same junior high school as Hanyu, in the special needs class.
He & his father Toshiaki (58) cook dumplings to deliver to Hanyu, as well as producing a newsletter about Hanyu, written by Toshiaki.
Yuki has autism & attended the special needs class at Nanakita elementary & junior high schools. Hanyu was in the same grade as him & would often visit his class when he had spare time.
When they had skating lessons, Hanyu personally taught him to skate. They also went on field trips together.
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And
In the great earthquake of March 2011, Yuki’s house was damaged, so he had to move to Kanazawa city.
Three months after the move, Hanyu came to Kanazawa with an ice show.
Yuki’s family went to see Hanyu during the practice. Yuki had been looking forward to seeing Hanyu, but he fell ill & couldn’t go.
On Yuki’s behalf, his father Toshiaki asked Hanyu if he remembered Yuki.
Hanyu answered, “How could I forget him?” Hanyu smiled & spoke of his memories of Yuki.
Toshiaki was impressed that Hanyu’s attitude hadn’t changed after he became a big star.
So Toshiaki created a fan group for Hanyu in Kanazawa.
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And
Toshiaki says, “I want him to succeed as a person even more than I want his victory as a competitor. I support Yuzuru-kun as a person.”
Yuki now attends a facility to help him become independent after high school.
When Hanyu is on the TV there, Yuki calls out “Yuzuru!” to the screen.
When Toshiaki asks Yuki, “You can work hard too, can’t you?”, Yuki answers, “I will do my best too. Get a gold medal.”
Yuki sends Hanyu dumplings every year, which he cooks at his facility before the start of the season.
Hanyu’s father told Toshiaki, “Yuzuru likes those dumplings.”
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I have been having a private conversation with a forum member who has been filling me in on all the details concerning Hanyu and his life - replete with youtube videos to illustrate the points. All I can say is WOW! This man is awesome! I first heard of him during the 2018 Olympic Men's SP. I have been a FS fan for about 58 years (since age 10 or so) now BUT I have been away from it for about the last approx 8 years due to extreme work pressures (medical field) - no time for TV watching; no time for forums, no time for much of anything but work. It is much better now.

I am SOOO impressed with this man and, most importantly, his humble attitude. He is my kind of human being. His skill is one thing but his attitude and his work ethic is everything for me. That counts far more for me than his awesome skill. His humility and work ethic blows me away. NO WONDER Chen had a melt down during the SP at the idea of competing against this man. A skater competing against Hanyu would be like a Christian competing against Jesus (I am not Christian; it is just an analogy). I "get it" now. It is beginning to all make sense. I am now the latest Hanyu fan. Anyone wanting to celebrate this man's accomplishments and sing his praises is welcome to post here. This man is one very special human being.
 
Tashcans are where people go to gossip about FS topics e.g. who got divorced, who got custody of the kid(s), who said xyz pairs skater was stronger thus lifted her faster than her own partner and husband, etc. - all the nasty details which are really none of anybody's business, anyway. Stuff like that. My thread is more about why Hanyu is so great esp given his humility and work ethic. I saw the video wherein he was bandaged up like a soldier from the Civil War battlefield - head wrap, stiches, etc. - and then the man went out there and performed. This man was going to give up skating after a devastating earthquake hit his hometown because so many of his fellow countrymen had lost so much, until they wrote to him and begged him not to do so. This is not gossipy stuff. This is inspiring material for anyone to read and use to improve their own life.
 
Welcome to the Trash Can - I did say this is where admins see fit to put all the gushing about skaters.
And not so many of them provide such juicy materials as divorce or custody of children - by sheer fortune of them mostly being single and child free. This is an extremely young sport - you’re a veteran in your early twenties, and a dinosaur if you’re over 26-27.
So most of the posts will be just that - gushing. If you want to go into full gushing about Yuzu, welcome to our fan forum planethanyu.com
And anyway, Yuzu provides pretty little stuff to gossip about. He’s very private, you know...
 
Yeah, that website sounds like a good place to gush over Hanyu. I would gladly contribute there. The problem is that I don't like the idea of putting Hanyu in a place called "Trashcan" because it implies that the purpose is to gossip about him and others. I would prefer it if we had a placed called "Skater Appreciation," in addition to the "Trashcan." The skater appreciation would be where we could discuss the inspiring things people have done. The thing I like about Hanyu so much really has nothing to do with skating. It has everything to do with his humility, his work ethic and his desire to serve others through his skating. He represents the things I strive to be in life but don't always achieve.
 
brennele said:
Yeah, that website sounds like a good place to gush over Hanyu. I would gladly contribute there. The problem is that I don't like the idea of putting Hanyu in a place called "Trashcan" because it implies that the purpose is to gossip about him and others. I would prefer it if we had a placed called "Skater Appreciation," in addition to the "Trashcan." The skater appreciation would be where we could discuss the inspiring things people have done. The thing I like about Hanyu so much really has nothing to do with skating. It has everything to do with his humility, his work ethic and his desire to serve others through his skating. He represents the things I strive to be in life but don't always achieve.
Click to expand...
Hello, I recommend you to read this thread from the beginning. I have spent years updating news about him in this thread.
I have just found this video with English subtitles, if you’d love to know more about Yuzuru as a person, you might love it: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3vvbv1
It’s about his memories with the earthquake and how he dealed with his own weakness, also turned it into his strength and motivation, to skate for his people.
http://tsukihoshi14.tumblr.com/post/164943249183/yuzuru-on-his-trip-to-a-school-in-ishinomaki-a
“I talked about skating in front of all the students, but more than that, the middle schoolers were much happier for the fact that I brought the gold medal there. Also, they smiled a lot just by meeting me. From the smile of all the students, for the first time I got to experience myself how those who suffered from the disaster, those who have gone through tremendous hardships, got more strength [from me], so I was very happy [to know that]. I think I was the one who was the most touched, and I myself got more strength [from that].

The people there might have lost their relatives, or even their families to the tsunami. They saw the tsunami right in front of their eyes, many things that were inside the tsunami waves, or even their houses or the fragments getting washed away. Amidst many hardships and sorrow, [they’re incredible] to have been able to do their best in these 3 years time. To have welcomed me who visited that place with beautiful smiles, and done many fun things together. That moment, I thought “Aa, I’m so glad I did skating after all…”. However my performance was, I still got to come here with the result of becoming an Olympic Gold medalist like this. It’s because my short program was really good, so everyone remembered it even for just a little bit.

I’m happy about that, and if it is because I visited them that those who suffered from the disaster can forget about their hardships for even just a moment, to me that would be something very meaningful. Therefore, at that moment, I thought that I wanted to get another Gold medal at the next Olympics.” - Yuzuru Hanyu
Click to expand...
 
Hanyu absolutely deserves his own forum. This man is truly a breath of fresh air. He certainly inspires me. I will go there and read more about him. Meoima, I will go back and read earlier posts esp those pertaining to the devastating earthquake. I am certain there is much to be learned there.
 
Yesterday, Yuzuru came back to Japan and gave the answers to some questions:
Yuzu thanked fans who supported him from childhood, from Sochi, first-time fans from PC, ppl who didn't watch but listened on the radio etc. feels the value of the gold was also in everyone's support. voices of congrats after win still haven't stopped & is still reaching him. Everyone's congrats is his happiness. he doesn't know what will happen from now but he will keep challenging various things and aim to deliver performances that will bring happiness and smiles to everyone.
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https://twitter.com/axelsandwich/status/968057017641455616
Yuzu declined to answer questions about the good food he ate in Pyeongchang bc he's not interested in food so his answers will probably be very boring.
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https://twitter.com/axelsandwich/status/968062695042945024
About his injury, Yuzuru said
'The gold medal is enough reward. because I got the gold medal, I was able to be congratulated by everyone like this, make everyone happy and be here, these are all rewards and I don't want anything beyond this. the thing I need to do now is treatment. I think it will be a very painful period of treatment & rehab. I may be very sad, like 'why can't I do this?' when watching various competitions from now. but I want to overcome painful times again, face the next things I need to do and keep moving forward.'
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https://twitter.com/axelsandwich/status/968068219306233858
 
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Brian Orser’s interview in Korean news (24 Feb 2018) – translated by Chaiyun Yoo. (only the parts related to Yuzu are translated) From https://yuzusorbet.tumblr.com/post/171304186202/brian-orsers-interview-in-korean-news-24-feb
Interviewer: Hanyu Yuzuru was injured for 3 months and did not skate. How did he spend his time?

Brian: Throughout that time, Yuzuru was in Toronto. At the beginning it was really depressing and dark. Seeing him walk in crutches was sad. I felt sad cause I knew how much Yuzuru wanted to practice. But instead of practicing, he was practicing in his head, visualising and practicing skills on the floor. And he was very serious about the training.

The turning point came three weeks before the start of the Olympics. The road seemed to open again. From there the training really started and he had to do all the techniques we had planned. So he gave himself confidence and he strategically planned it. And he was able to pull it off.

With him being able to pull off these results, I believe it as a miracle. I’ve never underestimated him, but he was like a ‘super power’ from another planet. I’m not very surprised that he was able to bring out these results. I know what process he’s been through so I’m just very happy.

Interviewer: People criticised the fact that Hanyu reused his 2015/16 long program. What do you think about this?

Brian: I believe he was wise in choosing to keep his program and reuse it this season. Because it’s a very special program. Isn’t it a program worthy of the Olympics? Two years ago, this program was too early to choose to show at the Olympics. The same goes for the short program. He is excellent and beautiful that even if you watch him over and over again, you won’t get tired of watching him.

Interviewer: Did Hanyu decide this himself?

Brian: It was 100% his choice, and I supported his decision. Carrying the responsibility, he chose to do it. He’s always spending his days with positive thoughts. We knew the press would talk about this decision a lot. But, there were a lot of people that wanted to see this program. Amongst them, there were some people that particularly liked this program, and they were the judges. With this program, Hanyu had broken his own world record, and when he did, there were judges that said, “I was able to watch it live and judge this excellent, magic-like competition, and it was best moment of my life.”

Those judges that missed out in watching the competition live were able to come and watch it at these Olympics.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you Meoima for sharing all this news about Yuzuru. I am especially impressed by the friendship Yuzuru had with his autistic childhood classmate. How sweet that the classmate's father has organized a fan club. Yuzuru has remained so thoughtful and humble throughout his career.
 
How inspiring; thank you for keeping us posted. I like the part where he used his time to rehearse in his mind. He is so humble. He is like a minimalist floral/twig zen-like arrangement - exquisitely beautiful in its simplicity. Yazuru is to skating what ikibana is to floral arrangement. I find him inspiring.
 
The olympic channel has released some cute interviews with Yuzuru, here's the interview where Yuzu talks about learning English to go to the forest with Pooh, his favorite mascot:
https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/playback/yuzuru-hanyu-happy-to-say-nothing-at-all/

And this one Javi talks about how it's like training alongside Yuzuru and what he admires about Yuzuru:
https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/playback/javier-fernandez-and-yuzuru-hanyu-rivals-and-friends/

Both videos have English subbed!
 
If anyone deserves a super vacation it is Yuzu. My wish is that he does something fun and fabulous just for himself.

He has endured so much pressure these past four years and especially these past few months and still
he never gave up on his goal to become a 2 time Olympic Champion. He gets my respect. :respec:
 
kittyjake5 said:
If anyone deserves a super vacation it is Yuzu. My wish is that he does something fun and fabulous just for himself.

He has endured so much pressure these past four years and especially these past few months and still
he never gave up on his goal to become a 2 time Olympic Champion. He gets my respect. :respec:
Click to expand...
Fans on Twitter are stressed over the 837246354 of press conferences and interviews that JOC and Japanese media are putting him in lol. But these media events are for all the medalists so not him alone. I feel poor the athletes, they need rest.
I want him to rest and go to the doctor as soon as possible. But Yuzuru is forever grateful towards people who support him. Here you see in the video he waves to people so hard, he even jumps up on his left leg (he avoids his right leg as it's still injured) so people in the behind rows could see him as well: https://twitter.com/katakun052514/status/968311221576458240
I am sure people are very touched as he is so considerate towards them, even though they just see him for several seconds.
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/sports/olympics/figure-skating-yuzuru-hanyu.html

Yuzuru's press conference with FCCJchannel:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ixm0QIZS_WGc-2ML_ukMBra61wZhyzJg/view

Transcription (part of it, will be updated) of what Yuzuru has been saying. I am shocked at how smart and thoughtful Yuzuru is through these questions. The translator is very good:
From https://twitter.com/michaeljardins/status/968345607395004417

- I'm really happy to get the gold medal. I really appreciate the cheering for me during my performance. I bet my life for this gold medal. I'm still alive. I'm not dying yet, so I'm happy to be here.

- I believe that even amongst all the athletes, I have experienced more injuries and illnesses than other athletes. there are times when I could not compete at all. but since I was a small child, it was my goal to achieve an Olympic gold medal.

- To be very honest, if I compare my ankle to the time at which it was the most painful, the pain has only reduced by about 20 to 30 percent. But despite that, with painkillers, I was able to achieve the gold medal at these Olympics.

- During the Olympics, I used the music from Onmyoji. When we consider the history of skating, it’s rare for people from Asia to win in skating competitions. The sport was developed in Europe. The historical developments of Europe and Japan are different.

- It’s often thought that people from Asia are at a disadvantage in expressive sports. So that I could use this Japanese music to achieve the gold medal is a historical moment. I hope this can be an opportunity to use more music from my country, and from unique cultures.

- When we consider the relationship between the artistic and technical parts of the sport. There needs to be a match. artistry is based at having strong technique and foundation - without this foundation, it is not possible to have that artistry.

- I always make sure I have rice before a competition. I find if I have bread or cereal or pasta, it doesn’t give me the strength to perform well. No matter the venue, I always make sure to have rice and that enables me to perform.

- Research has showed it is physically possible to have 5 revolutions. Of course, it would depend on the type of quintuple jump. If this is possible in the future, I would maybe want to challenge towards it. Since I was small, my own coach said you can do the quintuple.

- During this particular olympics, there were so many excellent skaters including both those that are older and more junior. Top skaters from around the world, therefore, from all of their incredible skating I gained so much in watching them skate and compete.

- Yuzuru about the difficulty of jumps: it's like closing your eyes while jumping and turning the jump rope 3 times around in one jump. For the triple, it’s like 30 jumps with your eyes closed, 40 jumps with your eyes closed for the quad, and 50 jumps for the quintuple.

- I'm not so interested in meals, so this is a difficult question for me. However, personally no matter how much i eat, i don't put on weight. so maybe i'm living a different life from other athletes. i sometimes go to mcdonalds and drink fizzy soft drinks, and even eat potato chips quite often.

- I used to always put my right boot on first, but on accident, I put my left boot on first and I was very nervous at the competition. But I performed very well after that. Since then, I’ve realized that it’s okay, so there’s no particular routine.

- However, one thing I do take particular care of, I always make sure before I go out that I tidy things, I make sure the bed is made and things are tidy before I go forwards, to make sure there’s nothing niggling or left behind.

- Actually, there’s been many opportunities where the japanese media asks javier about me. So I’ve been waiting for a question from the spanish media to talk about him. He’s a kind person, perhaps too kind. So actually when i received the gold medal, I was also crying about javier’s medal. He did not get a medal in sochi, and I knew how difficult this was for him. As we were training together towards the olympics, he became very quiet. Therefore I was proud of his medal. Of course I do not know if we can continue together from now on, if Javier will continue to compete. But what I can say is that the six years we have continued to train each other and encourage each other is something that has made me very very happy. I am confident I would not be here with the gold without Javier Fernandez. We mentioned Javier. He’s always playing soccer and training with skating. I don’t know if that contributes to his skating, but many of the overseas skaters are playing soccer.

- Of course, it's not possible in a bike to perform jumps, so I'm not sure how appropriate it is for figure skating, but when I was injured, I used a bike to keep up my muscles.

(some of the answers are a bit paraphrased since the press conference was going sooo fast, but i think they're all accurate.)
 
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So touching. It is unfathomable to me that was able to win the gold with an injury serious enough to require pain-killers. Yuzuru mentions persons from Asia being at a disadvantage in expressive sports. One thing Yazuru will be happy to know is that as the whole skating paradigm is shifting toward men needed to do quads, we will be seeing more men from Asia skating in these competitions. Quads require a thin but very strong body. It occurs in all races but it is more common in Asian countries. The other thing which absolutely blows me away about male figure skaters is that no matter how slight and thin they are, having testosterone, as they do, gives them such incredible strength over what we women can muster. It never ceases to amaze me. One night I stayed up late packing boxes of books for my husband to take to the post office the next day. I was donating them to Books for Africa. I packed all of the books into two boxes thinking he could carry one each to the car, making two trips. Then I thought better of it. I thought they were too heavy so I stayed up late redoing them in 3 boxes such that no box would be too heavy. I would rather have gone to bed but I did not want him to injure himself carrying each of the two boxes to the car. So come the next morning, he asks me "where are those boxes you want me to take to the post office." I tell him they are in the living room then I follow him in there. I am amazed to watch him pick up all three boxes at once and carry them to the car in one trip. His only comment was "Open the back door for me." Sigh! What I would not do for more strength.
 
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