The particular 27-year-old, dressed in the suit and tie up at a news meeting in Tokyo, said that while he has been stepping back from competition, he would continue his career like a professional athlete.
He added he would keep trying to achieve the fabled multiply by 4 axel — which has never been completed in competition — subsequent his unsuccessful try at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Hanyu, a two-time world champ and winner of four Grand Tarifs Finals, is known to his worldwide fan base — including a massive subsequent in China — as the “Ice Prince. ”
His supporters are recognized for throwing Winnie the Pooh toys on to the ice after his performances; the particular skater considers the A. A. Milne character a lucky charm.
Hanyu expressed his “deepest gratitude” to his fans on Tuesday, adding he wished people would carry on supporting him plus believing “it’s really worth watching me skate. ”
“Please keep watch me combat, ” he mentioned, bowing several times to the cameras and reporters.
A lot of fans flooded in order to social media to express their support for his decision on Wednesday, thanking him for his hard work plus dedication to the sports activity over the years.
Hanyu won his first gold medal at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at 19, becoming the particular youngest men’s champ since 1948 and the first Asian man to win amount skating gold. His Sochi performance produced him an immediate celebrity and arguably Japan’s most famous sportsman.
He defended his title at the PyeongChang 2018 Games — the first male shape skater since 1952 to win back-to-back Olympic golds.
Right after his 2018 win, fans sent him tens of thousands of congratulatory communications, including one through then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — who afterward given Hanyu the Individuals Honor Award, producing him the youngest recipient of the prize.
Hanyu attempted to secure a third gold medal at the Beijing Winter Video games in February — but injured his ankle during exercise, and fell while attempting the notoriously difficult quad axel.
Hanyu had not managed to successfully complete the four-and-a-half rotation jump just before bringing it towards the ice, and he ultimately placed fourth within the competition.
Afterward, this individual said in an information conference that his ankle had harm so badly the morning of the last he had considered taking out — and could have “definitely” done so if this had been “any some other competition, ” based on the official Olympics website . The same ankle experienced already been the source associated with repeated injury within the months leading up to the Games.
His ankle injury prevented him from participating in the World Figure Skating Championships in March, according to the Olympics site.
Within June, Hanyu carried out an ice show tour through Japan but did not talk to media, the Olympics site said.