Figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu competes in Men's Single Short Program in Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 8, 2022. Photo: VCG

Amid huge anticipation, double Olympic champ figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, 27, from Japan, finally displayed his first show in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on Tuesday in the short program.

Hanyu's score of 95.15 put him in the eighth place. Three-time world champion Nathan Chen from the US ranked first with a record-making 113.97. Two-time world bronze medalist Jin Boyang from China came 11th with 90.98.  

Although failing to make his first jump, Hanyu won praises and respect from judges and the audience with excellent performance in the rest of the show and his full commitment to the music, which fans said makes watching the program an artistic appreciation rather than a competition. 

Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan skates during the men's singles short program at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games on February 8, 2022. Photo: IC

In an interview after the competition, Hanyu told media that he missed the jump because he stepped into a small hole in the ice, which might have been caused by previous skaters. 

When asked how he felt after missing the jump, Hanyu said, "at that moment, I told myself that this was really unlucky, but it was just a flash of a second, I had to prepare for the next moves. I really love the music of my short program, love dancing with it, I did not feel bad about the program."

"I watched him complete the program with courage. Commitment to the music and faith to tell the story until the very end, and give the ice the gentle smile after. Thank you Yuzuru, for skating, for fighting the battle that only you can fight," a Twitter user named Iae commented.

Hashtag "Yuzuru Hanyu missed a jump" also soon became a trending topic on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.

"He made a mistake but was still ranked the second, this already proves how amazing he is!" said a Weibo user. 

Some netizens said what they really look forward to is Hanyu landing a quadruple axel (4A) in the long program on Thursday.

The axel - named after Norwegian Axel Paulsen who invented it in the late 19th century - is the only one of the six types of figure skating jumps, in which skaters take off facing forward. 

A quadruple axel, or 4A, means that skaters must rotate an extra half-revolution - four and a half times, while the axel jump, deemed the "king of jumps" has been frozen at a triple for 44 years, according to media reports.  

Hanyu has included the 4A in his All Japan Championships free skate program in late 2021 but landed two-footed and under-rotated. He told media that he would attempt the 4A in Beijing to win a third gold at the Winter Games.

After Hanyu was qualified for the Beijing Olympics, his Japanese fans called on Chinese audiences to cheer on Hanyu during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games as they would be unable to attend the event due to COVID-19 restrictions. In October 2021, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying replied to the "request," commenting "We got it!"

Many netizens on Sina Weibo also posted "We got it!" to show their support for Hanyu. 

Global Times