It must have ended one day. Not really. All those Winnie the Pooh, crowds of Japanese people even in Saitama, even in Moscow, an army of journalists in mixed areas… I remember walking at 5:50 in the morning to Palavel during the 2019/20 Grand Prix Final in Turin, and there is a queue at the entrance with a kilometer. It is already dawn, on the grass and fallen leaves – drops of icy dew. No sun, cold. “We are from Japan, we took a seat in advance,” the girl said in broken English. “I took a sleeping bag in case I have to stand for a long time.”
They came to the first men’s training session on the schedule two days before the start of the competition to watch Yuzuru Hanyu. In the end, he never showed up. And after the warm-up, during which Yuzu had to practice, the arena was empty. Frustrated Japanese fans went to drink morning coffee and have breakfast. The next day, everything happened again.
I have never seen such dedicated people in my life as Hanyu fans. The Japanese themselves are quite strange people. They say they only like winners and quickly lose interest in those who start to fall out of the race.
This is not the case with Yuzuru. Then in Turin, he was no longer the number one number for male singles. Even sincere free skating, while far from infallible, did not and could not bring him victory. The American Nathan Chen was at that time out of reach – the short and successful ideal test for psychological stability in the free program through the “fluff” did not even leave a theoretical chance of a fight. Then Hanyu fought with himself, with injuries, with a quadruple axel – with anyone and anything, but not with Chen. Gold medals are not given for this fight.
As Chen shoots their idol with perfect quads, the Japanese watched from the VIP seats in Palavela. They bought them clean – absolutely everything, leaving no free tickets. Tickets cost around 3,000 euros, if I remember everything correctly. Even then, the amount is astronomical.
In addition to VIP seats, the organizers gave small gifts – a bag with a zipper containing a small branded pillow, a program and all sorts of stationery nonsense. For some reason they handed them out at the press entrance – probably to sort of separate the streams of spectators and not have a crush. They threw these bags on the ground behind the accreditation point, and every evening, walking past them, I thought – what if…
Once I couldn’t take it – and, in fact, I took it. A willing girl ran up and started explaining that folders are supposed to be given to VIP guests – for example, to this Japanese girl who was in the front line. It was embarrassing. And the girl smiled and said, they say, take it, it’s okay. “The main thing for me is to be closer to him”…
Yesterday “he” officially retired. Millions of fans no longer have an idol. And the incentive to go to competitions for thousands of dollars and miles from home.
I don’t want to repeat myself for the trillionth time and say what an incredible athlete Hanyu is. If we dissect his personality, I would generally divide it into two separate elements – Hanyu as a figure skater and Hanyu as a media personality. Everything is clear with Hanyu the skater. He is a genius, a fighter, a skier, a jumper, a drop of creative madness in a strict, systemic, predictable sports paradigm. In my opinion, he is defeated, but not surpassed. No matter how good Chen is, but alas. It’s always different – more understandable, clean and neat. He will be remembered as a playboy, not an alien – incomprehensible, but even more charming for that. Although both will be remembered as legends.
Hanyu as a media personality is easier to understand. And heavier. I didn’t just talk about the Japanese people who scatter money and tears at the mere chance of seeing Yuzuru from several meters away. For a long time, they were the main monetary force in figure skating going through tough times, and Yuzuru led them to every tournament he entered.
He also managed sponsors. Even now Japan is the main patron of the International Skating Union (ISU), sources I interviewed estimated their financial contribution to the solvency of the union at 70-75%. This is largely due to the name Yuzuru. I will not say that with his departure from the ISU, Japanese money will completely disappear. Still, there are fans of Olympic medalist Shoma Uno, and quite a few of them. Now there will also be fans of Yuma Kagiyama – in my opinion, a potentially even more talented skater than Yuzu.
But which will be the idol? Exactly.
Now the ISU has only one star left, and it’s a potential star – Russian-American single skater Ilya Malinin. He has no one to fight. He will compete, and he will have a rivalry with Kagiyama…usually he will. But this is pure sport, and in terms of money it is valued very poorly.
Do you know who else in the world besides Hanyu could shut down both sports and the media? Russian figure skaters. Do you know who the ISU is voluntarily suspending and so far refusing to even consider the possibility of admission under a neutral flag?
Of course you do. I believe that under the current conditions, the ISU has only one opportunity to save itself from oblivion and lack of money: to bring our boys and our girls back to international competitions before it is too late. . With all the problems the union has faced over the past two months, the complete loss of Russia – one of the most money-rich markets – will be fatal.
They don’t have much time to fix things. And with Hanyu gone, it started to run faster.
Source : MatchTV
I am William Jackson and I have a passion for sports journalism. With over 3 years of experience in the industry, I have worked in a variety of roles to improve the quality and accuracy of sports news coverage. As an author at Athletistic, I specialize in covering football news and providing comprehensive analysis for fans around the world.
