129 Facts About Yuzuru Hanyu

Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese figure skater and ice show producer.

Yuzuru Hanyu is a two-time World champion, six-time Japanese national champion, and the first single skater to win four consecutive Grand Prix Finals.

Yuzuru Hanyu is the first and only single skater to be ranked first in the ISU World Standings for five consecutive seasons.

Yuzuru Hanyu broke world records 19times, the most in singles since the introduction of the ISU Judging System in 2003, and was the first skater to land a quadruple loop jump in international competition among other achievements.

At 16years old, Yuzuru Hanyu experienced the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in his hometown of Sendai, which fundamentally shaped his life and career, having participated in different charity events and dedicated various performances to the victims of the disaster.

Yuzuru Hanyu is the chairperson of Nippon TV's annual 3.11 commemoration ice show Yuzuru Hanyu Notte Stellata, inaugurated in 2023.

Since the earthquake, Yuzuru Hanyu has donated a cumulative total of more than $3million USD for reconstruction, disaster prevention, and other humanitarian efforts.

In recognition of his achievements, Yuzuru Hanyu became the youngest recipient of the People's Honor Award, bestowed by the Prime Minister of Japan, received Japan's Medal of Honor with purple ribbon twice and was awarded the Kikuchi Kan Prize.

Yuzuru Hanyu is the first figure skater to be nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award and was named the Most Valuable Skater at the inaugural ISU Skating Awards.

Yuzuru Hanyu was featured in prestigious lists, such as Forbes 30Under30 Asia, ESPN's top25 of greatest Olympians of the 21st century, and the International Sports Press Association's list of most impactful male athletes of the last 100 years.

Yuzuru Hanyu was born on December 7,1994, in Izumi ward, Sendai, Japan, as the second child to father Hidetoshi Hanyu, a junior high school teacher, and mother Yumi Hanyu, a former clerk at a department store.

Yuzuru Hanyu's father was an advisor to the baseball school club and recommended the sport to his son, but Yuzuru Hanyu eventually decided to pursue a career in figure skating.

At the age of two, Yuzuru Hanyu was diagnosed with asthma, a condition that gradually improved with time yet negatively affected his stamina, especially during his junior career.

Yuzuru Hanyu began skating at the age of four at Ice Rink Sendai in Izumi, after coach Mami Yamada had suggested he try the sport instead of being a nuisance during his sister's training.

On weekends, Yuzuru Hanyu travelled three hours from Sendai to Yokohama for additional lessons at Tsuzuki's new skating club.

In summer 2006, at 11 years old, Yuzuru Hanyu's confidence showed up when initiating a spin battle against that year's Olympic silver medalist, Stephane Lambiel, who was known for his world-class spins.

In that season, Yuzuru Hanyu had included the triple Axel, a jump with three and a half revolutions, in his programs for the first time, though receiving negative grades of execution for all three attempts.

Yuzuru Hanyu placed first at both of his Grand Prix assignments, in Poland and Croatia, and entered the Final as the top qualifier, which he won with a new personal best score of 206.77 points.

Yuzuru Hanyu became the fourth and youngest Japanese man to win the junior world title.

Yuzuru Hanyu skated his short program to "White Legend" from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, performed by Japanese violinist Ikuko Kawai, and used Zigeunerweisen by Pablo de Sarasate for the free skate.

Yuzuru Hanyu gave his international senior debut at the 2010 NHK Trophy, where he landed his first successful quadruple jump at an ISU-sanctioned event; a quad toe loop.

Yuzuru Hanyu placed fourth overall at the competition and seventh at the subsequent Rostelecom Cup, missing out on a medal at his first two senior Grand Prix events.

At 16 years old, Yuzuru Hanyu became the youngest medalist at the Four Continents Championships.

Yuzuru Hanyu opened the season at the Nebelhorn Trophy, where he won his first gold medal at an international senior competition.

Yuzuru Hanyu then won the bronze medal at the Japan Championships, earning a spot on the Japanese team for the 2012 World Championships.

Yuzuru Hanyu became the youngest Japanese world medalist, finishing behind then two-time world champion Patrick Chan and Daisuke Takahashi.

The first months, Yuzuru Hanyu was making frequent trips to Toronto, but continued to attend high school in Sendai.

The coaching change resulted in immediate success; At the 2012 Finlandia Trophy, Yuzuru Hanyu landed his first quadruple Salchow in international competition and won the event.

At the Japan Championships, Yuzuru Hanyu won his first national senior title, defeating the reigning and five-time national champion, Daisuke Takahashi, scoring an unofficial record of 285.23 points in the combined total.

At the Japan Championships, Yuzuru Hanyu went on to win a second national title and was selected to represent the Japanese team at the 2014 Winter Olympics and World Championships.

Yuzuru Hanyu is the perfect model and he masters his art like no one else.

Yuzuru Hanyu was diagnosed with a tubal residual disease and had to undergo surgery on his bladder, being hospitalized for two weeks and resting for another month.

Yuzuru Hanyu started the season by winning gold at the 2015 Autumn Classic, finishing 36 points ahead of silver medalist Nam Nguyen.

Yuzuru Hanyu had been struggling with his short program layout throughout the previous season that included a quad toe loop and a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination in the second half.

Yuzuru Hanyu finished 37.48 points ahead of Javier Fernandez, breaking the record of the largest victory margin at the Grand Prix Final, which was held by Evgeni Plushenko with 35.10 points in 2004.

At the Japan Championships, Yuzuru Hanyu won his fourth consecutive national title after placing first in both segments.

Yuzuru Hanyu opened the season with a win at the 2016 Autumn Classic, becoming the first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop jump in competition.

Yuzuru Hanyu fought back with a strong free skate, placing first in the segment and scoring a new season's best of 303.71 points in the combined total.

At the World Championships, Yuzuru Hanyu moved up from fifth place after the short program to first with a clean free skate performance that featured four quadruple jumps and two triple Axels.

Yuzuru Hanyu scored a new world record of 223.20 points in the segment and won his second world title, finishing ahead of his compatriot Shoma Uno and Jin Boyang from China.

In July 2022, Yuzuru Hanyu named the free skate performance of Hope and Legacy as the one that he thought would represent him best and was the most perfectly executed of his competitive career.

Yuzuru Hanyu contributed 18 points to the team score and won gold with Team Japan.

Yuzuru Hanyu opened the season with a win at the 2018 Autumn Classic, but expressed dissatisfaction with his performances, pledging to improve in the next competitions.

Yuzuru Hanyu became the first skater to land a quad toe loop-triple Axel jump sequence in competition, winning the event by about 40 points over Michal Brezina.

At the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, Yuzuru Hanyu upped the short program record to 110.53 points, but on the following day, he re-injured his right ankle in practice after falling on a quad loop.

At the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, Yuzuru Hanyu placed third in the short program after turning his opening quad Salchow into a double, but came back with a strong free skate, becoming the first skater to surpass the 200 and 300 marks in the new judging system with 206.10 points in the free skate and 300.97 in total.

Similar to his preparations for the Olympics, Yuzuru Hanyu had relied on painkillers before and during the competition to make jumping possible.

Yuzuru Hanyu placed first with a new largest victory margin of 59.82 points ahead of Nam Nguyen, improving his own record of 55.97 points from 2015.

At the Grand Prix Final, Yuzuru Hanyu went into the short program without company due to a delayed arrival of his coach Ghislain Briand.

Yuzuru Hanyu was assigned to compete at the World Championships in Montreal, but these were canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2021, due to travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Yuzuru Hanyu started to train alone in Sendai with some remote consultation from his coaches.

Yuzuru Hanyu placed first in the short program and the free skate with all positive grades of execution on jumping passes and won his fifth national figure skating title with a total score of 319.36 points.

Yuzuru Hanyu placed first in the short program with a solid performance, 6.02 points ahead of compatriot Yuma Kagiyama.

Yuzuru Hanyu competed as part of Team Japan for the 2021 World Team Trophy.

Yuzuru Hanyu placed second in both the short program and the free skate, only behind Nathan Chen.

Yuzuru Hanyu achieved a personal season's best score in both the short program and the free skate with 107.12 and 193.76 points respectively and earned a total of 22 points to help his team take home the bronze medal.

Yuzuru Hanyu attempted a quadruple Axel for the first time during the free skate, although it was downgraded to a triple Axel with a two-footed landing.

Yuzuru Hanyu was assigned to represent Japan at the 2022 Winter Olympics and the 2022 World Championships.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Yuzuru Hanyu missed his opening quadruple Salchow jump in the short program due to a hole in the ice and placed eighth with 95.15 points, qualifying him for the free skate.

Yuzuru Hanyu stated his intention to show his skating through his YouTube channel and increase opportunities for everyone to watch it, including those who are unable to attend ice shows.

In 2022, Yuzuru Hanyu presented his first ice show as a professional figure skater, titled Prologue, in Yokohama and Hachinohe.

On September15,2024, Yuzuru Hanyu led a charity performance titled "Challenge" in Ishikawa Prefecture, accompanied by Satoko Miyahara, Akiko Suzuki, and Takahito Mura.

Yuzuru Hanyu is regarded by analysts as an accomplished skater known for his high-level technical elements as well as mature and versatile artistry.

Yuzuru Hanyu's performance is often characterized as "the perfect combination of skills, strength and elegance", tending to "[blur] rigid gender lines".

Yuzuru Hanyu is known for his ability to generate skating speed "out of nowhere" and cover long distances with only a few strokes.

The ability to accelerate with a few strokes allows Yuzuru Hanyu to execute his jumps from a variety of difficult entries.

Yuzuru Hanyu is known for his strong vaulting technique with minimal pre-rotation on the ice at the take-off, achieving trajectories of impressive size.

Yuzuru Hanyu is able to execute the layback Biellmann and doughnut camel spin, which are more commonly seen in women's singles and known for their difficulty among male skaters due to the high flexibility required in spine, hips, and shoulders.

Yuzuru Hanyu's programs cover a variety of different music genres, including classical pieces, modern pop rock, musicals, and traditional Japanese music.

Yuzuru Hanyu notably portrayed the historical Japanese figures Abe no Seimei and Uesugi Kenshin in his free skate programs at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.

Yuzuru Hanyu dedicated various exhibition programs to the victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and performed them as live music collaborations at shows like Fantasy on Ice among others.

Yuzuru Hanyu is known to be involved in all aspects of his programs, from the music selection and editing process to the costume design and choreography.

Yuzuru Hanyu makes a lot of the decisions on his own.

Figure skaters Yuzuru Hanyu looked up to while growing up are Evgeni Plushenko and Johnny Weir.

Yuzuru Hanyu has appeared in many commercials and advertising campaigns over the years.

Yuzuru Hanyu signed an affiliation contract with All Nippon Airways which ended when he turned professional in 2022 but he remained sponsored by the company till September 2023.

From February 8 to 23,2014, Yuzuru Hanyu endorsed ANA's new line of flight attendant outfits, which were designed by Prabal Gurung and appeared in a TV commercial for their 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics "Hello Blue Hello Future" campaign.

In September 2014, Yuzuru Hanyu starred in a TV commercial for Capcom's new video game Monster Hunter 4G and endorsed Lotte's Ghana milk chocolate with Mao Asada, singer Airi Matsui, and actresses Suzu Hirose and Tao Tsuchiya, in following years he endorsed Lotte's Xylitol Whites and GUM FOR THE GAME.

Yuzuru Hanyu has worked with other brands such as Ajinomoto endorsing their sport nutritional products Amino Vital and nutritional meals along with other athletes like Uta Abe, bath salts Bathclin Kikiyu, bedding products Nishikawa Sangyo co.

In 2019, Yuzuru Hanyu became the ambassador for Citizen in China, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as the global ambassador of the Sekkisei series by Kose.

Yuzuru Hanyu was later appointed as the global "muse" of the Sekkisei Miyabi brand in 2020.

In October 2021, Yuzuru Hanyu was chosen as a face of Towa Pharmaceutical co.

In 2013 and 2021, Yuzuru Hanyu was appointed as the model for Miyagi Prefecture Police's traffic safety poster aiming to encourage compliance with traffic rules and spread awareness of safe driving.

In June 2021, Yuzuru Hanyu was appointed as the ambassador of the world's first official Paralympics game The Pegasus Dream Tour, making his video game debut with his avatar appearing in the game.

Since April 2014, Yuzuru Hanyu has been acting as the tourism ambassador of Sendai and featured in the city's tourism posters as well as tourist guidebooks.

Since the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Yuzuru Hanyu has been an advocate for and supporter of various campaigns to help earthquake victims, as he was directly affected by the disaster, stating: "When the earthquake hit, I was on the ice at my home rink in Sendai".

Yuzuru Hanyu has been helping his home rink Ice Rink Sendai, rendered unusable after the disaster, by donating all the royalties and part of the proceeds of his autobiography series.

In September 2014, Yuzuru Hanyu was appointed as the Tsunami Disaster Prevention Ambassador for one year participating in activities to spread tsunami disaster prevention public awareness.

In February 2015, Yuzuru Hanyu became the spokesman for reconstruction efforts led by the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Yuzuru Hanyu lent his image as the spokesman for the Red Cross' "Hatachi no Kenketsu" donation campaign where he starred in the promotional video with patients.

Yuzuru Hanyu collaborated with Line Corporation supervising the creation of "Yuzuru Hanyu 3.11 Smile Stamp" which went on sale with all revenues donated to the Nippon Foundation's "Special Fund for Disaster Reconstruction" to support acts for reconstruction and future disaster preparation.

Yuzuru Hanyu appeared in five of the nine posters being released.

In 2021, marking the 10th anniversary of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Yuzuru Hanyu organized the "Together, Forward" exhibition that traces his footsteps during that difficult period, revisiting the affected people and places.

From 2014 to 2022, Yuzuru Hanyu regularly participated in Nippon TV's annual charity program 24-Hour Television, holding special ice shows and visiting victims in disaster areas.

Yuzuru Hanyu visited earthquake-affected areas in Fukushima and Ishinomaki, interviewing the victims as part of the program segment.

In December 2022, it was announced that Yuzuru Hanyu was appointed as a special messenger for NTV's program news every.

Since the earthquake in 2011, Yuzuru Hanyu has donated a cumulative total of more than $3million for reconstruction, disaster prevention, and other humanitarian efforts.

Yuzuru Hanyu served as a judge on Japan's popular New Year's Eve music show Kohaku Uta Gassen twice, in 2015 and 2022.

Yuzuru Hanyu made his on-screen debut as Date Shigemura, a samurai lord, in the 2016 movie, The Magnificent Nine.

In May 2023, Yuzuru Hanyu guested on a special episode celebrating the 48th-anniversary of the world's longest-running single-host talk show, Tetsuko's Room.

Yuzuru Hanyu was one of the athletes featured in the 2022 Winter Olympics official documentary film Beijing 2022 released in May 2023.

On March 5,2025, Yuzuru Hanyu collaborated with Japanese singer Kenshi Yonezu to perform a figure skating program for the music video of the latter's song "Bow and Arrow", which was used as the opening theme of the anime Medalist.

Yuzuru Hanyu released two video albums compiling some of his competitive career performances, the first titled Time of Awakening was released on May 21,2014, including performances till the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In 2018, Yuzuru Hanyu's first self-produced show Continues with Wings was live broadcast on CS TV Asahi and live-streamed at 66 movie theaters throughout Japan.

Yuzuru Hanyu is one of the lead cast members besides Stephane Lambiel and Johnny Weir at the annual touring ice show Fantasy on Ice, having participated in all editions of the tour since its revival in 2010 with one exception, having missed the shows in 2016 due to rehabilitation from a ligament injury.

Yuzuru Hanyu released the first two parts of his autobiography series Blue Flames and Blue Flames II in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

Yuzuru Hanyu released various photobooks cooperating with multiple publishers and photographers.

On September 25,2015, Yuzuru Hanyu Sayings was released containing pictures and quotes by the skater.

Yuzuru Hanyu has graced the cover of numerous sports magazines, including the 100th edition of World Figure Skating, Japan's oldest figure skating magazine.

AERAs special issue about Yuzuru Hanyu, titled The driving force behind the leap, sold over 29,000 copies in the first week, topping Oricon's weekly general books chart in October 2022.

Yuzuru Hanyu is regarded as part of the vanguard of the quad revolution in men's figure skating.

Yuzuru Hanyu was one of the few skaters who challenged quadruple Salchow at the 2014 Olympics.

Yuzuru Hanyu is credited as the first figure skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition after performing it in the short program at the Autumn Classic International in Montreal, Canada on September 30,2016.

Yuzuru Hanyu is the only skater who has landed a quadruple toe loop-triple Axel sequence in competition, doing so for the first time at Grand Prix Helsinki 2018.

Yuzuru Hanyu is the first skater to land a quadruple toe loop-Euler-triple flip combination at Skate Canada 2019.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Yuzuru Hanyu made his first attempt on the quadruple Axel in an international competition.

However, in regards to the ongoing debate on jumps versus artistry in the sport, Yuzuru Hanyu spoke through an interpreter after his second Olympic win in 2018:.

In recognition of his achievements, Yuzuru Hanyu has been awarded numerous accolades, including the People's Honor Award in 2018 becoming the first figure skater and the youngest recipient of the award.

Yuzuru Hanyu was awarded the Medal of Honour with Purple Ribbon in 2014 and 2018, and received two monuments depicting his trademark poses performed at the 2014 and 2018 Olympics in his hometown of Sendai.

In 2022, Yuzuru Hanyu placed sixth in the list of most-searched athletes on Google Search worldwide, behind Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Manti Te'o, and Shaun White.

Yuzuru Hanyu was featured in prestigious lists, such as Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 as well as ESPN's World Fame 100 and The Dominant 20, received multiple awards and ranked high in various lists and popularity polls by media outlets.

Yuzuru Hanyu ranked 6th behind Muhammad Ali, Usain Bolt, Michael Jordan, Pele, and Roger Federer.

Since Yuzuru Hanyu began carrying a Winnie-the-Pooh tissue box to competitions in 2010, his supporters and fans eventually made it a custom to acknowledge the end of his performances by throwing Pooh bears onto the ice instead of other kinds of stuffed toys or gifts, which has been a tradition in figure skating.

Yuzuru Hanyu donates the bears to disadvantaged children at local hospitals and charities surrounding the arena that hosted the event.

In 2013, Yuzuru Hanyu graduated from Tohoku High School then entered an e-school program on Human Information Science at Waseda University.

Yuzuru Hanyu attended the school from his training base in Canada.

Yuzuru Hanyu officially graduated from the university in September 2020, but was unable to attend the ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

Yuzuru Hanyu announced on November 17,2023 that he and his spouse had divorced, citing harassment by the press as cause for the separation.

Yuzuru Hanyu holds the historical world record in all three competition segments: the short program, free skating, and combined total score.