A figure-staking legend is calling it a career. Yuzuru Hanyu announced his retirement from competition on Tuesday at the age of 27. He made the announcement at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan but said he would continue his career as a professional athlete, per CNN.
“I will be extremely sad if people don’t want to watch me anymore, but even then, I will try my best from now on so that people feel like there’s a reason to still watch my skating,” the skater said while discussing his future, per Bloomberg. Hanyu is a two-time world champion and winner of four Grand Prix Finals. Known as the “Ice Prince,” Hanyu also won gold medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang. He became the first male figure skater since 1952 to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals.
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Hanyu said he made the second to retire as he was dealing with a right ankle sprain he suffered ahead of the free program at this year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. “I can say for sure that I won’t miss the tension of a competition”, he said, per Olympics.com. “But I hope to work as hard as ever so people will want to keep supporting Hanyu as they know him.
“After the Beijing Olympics when I got home, I couldn’t skate because of the pain in the ankle. I thought about all kinds of things then but I felt that I don’t need to be on this stage forever.” Hanyu has won a total of seven World Championship medals, making him the only male single skater along with Jan Hoffmann to win that many medals in the World Championships in the post-war era.
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee sent a message to Hanyu. “Congratulations on an outstanding Olympic career,” he said. “You are a true Olympic champion. Good luck for the next steps in your skating career. We will keep following you and look forward to seeing you again.”
The question now is what’s next for Hanyu? “There’s a lot of things I’m thinking, discussing and planning at the moment but I can’t go into details yet”, he said. “I want to put on a show that’s fitting of the times and also one that will be attractive to someone who’s never watched figure skating before”.
