Pooh Bears rain down as Yuzuru Hanyu defends Olympic title
The Japanese skater became the first male since the USA’s Dick Button to defend his crown.
Pooh Bears rained from the packed upper tiers as Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu recovered from injury to become the first male figure skater in 66 years to retain the Olympic title in a mesmeric climax to the men’s event at Gangneung Ice Arena.
Hanyu has a Pooh Bear as mascot for all his regular competitions but it was reportedly banned from the Olympics due to strict branding rules, so the 23-year-old’s hordes of fans brought their own, showering them on the ice after Hanyu’s final, gold medal-winning free skate.
That Hanyu was even fit to hit such heights was a surprise: he had injured an ankle ligament practising a quaad lutz in November, and missed the team event at the start of the Games to give himself more time to concentrate on making history in the individual event.
“This is the best day of my skating life, and my tears were from my heart,” said Hanyu, one of the most revered sports stars in his homeland, who had taken time off the ice to play a Samurai lord in a 2016 film called ‘The Magnificent Nine’. “I just thought, ‘skate’ – and I trusted,” he added.
But the free skate itself belonged to 18-year-old American Nathan Chen, who came to the Games as favourite, unbeaten all season, only to see his medal hopes effectively ended after a disastrous short program on Friday had left him ailing in 17th position.
Chen’s performance, freed from the evident weight of expectation, was gloriously redemptive, underlining his status as the great new talent of an event which itself emphatically recovered from a relatively underwhelming final session in Sochi four years ago.
Due to his lowly position, Chen was forced to skate in the second of four final groups, over an hour before the medals were decided, but his free skate score of 215.08 was the best of the day, eclipsing even Hanyu’s 206.17, and lifting him 12 places to a finishing position of fifth.
“Being so low in the placement just took the pressure away from me, and I no longer felt like I was striving for that first-place spot,” admitted Chen. “There was a lot about redemption. I just wanted to leave here satisfied.”
There were more tears of joy from 17-year-old Vincent Zhou, who finished just behind his compatriot Chen in sixth place, and more wild exuberance from 10th placed Adam Rippon, the self-proclaimed ‘American Sweetheart’, who has captivated the media during this competition and will now consider his skating future.
“I’ve had the time of my life,” said Rippon. “It’s been a wild ride. I need a five minute break and a really stiff drink and maybe a day or two off the ice, at least to dry out my costumes. And then we’ll see.”
Uno, the final skater in the competition, blew his shot at gold when he went down on his opening quad, but as he finished, twirling to the thunderous climax to ‘Nessun Dorma’, such mistakes had been forgotten, and the sequins and Pooh Bears reigned supreme.
