I’m Loving… Figure Skating (Ok… mainly Yuzuru Hanyu)

The Winter Olympics. The younger, cooler (literally), and therefore ever-changing, counterpart to the Summer Olympics. Whilst probably watched by less people, and it contains sports which are almost in their infancy, no one can argue about their entertainment value - after all, no one falls quite like almost all the competitors in the 500m Short Track final.

But really, my focus is ice skating. Yesterday, history was made at the Iceberg Skating Palace, in the form of 19 year old Yuzuru Hanyu, and during his Olympic début. Not only did he produce a world record breaking short program score of 101.45 on Thursday, but by winning the gold, he had become the youngest male champion in 66 years - as well as the first Japanese (and Asian!) man to win figure skating gold.

Yuzuru is somewhat extraordinary. Although he is the 2013-2014 Grand Prix Final champion, and the 2013 & 2014 Japanese national champion, in 2010, he was still competing at junior level (he was the 2010 World Junior champion!). It’s probably good to note here that you can keep competing as junior until you’re 19 in ice skating - by moving up, Yuzuru was now competing against the most elite skaters - especially Daisuke Takahashi, whom he idolized, Patrick Chan, whose skating skills Yuzuru utterly admired, and Evgeni Plushenko, who had inspired him to begin skating in the first place. 

And he’s super good looking too.

In fact, Yuzuru's great looks has sparked many a debate about the treatment and objectification of sporting athletes because of their appearance - his resemblance to K-Pop stars and some anime characters has made him a heartthrob in both his native Japan and just about everywhere else. Androgyny is big in Asia. Androgyny is now big everywhere - even if you don’t think he’s hot, you kinda have to admit he’s cute. 

Winne the Pooh is his lucky charm!

So he’s adorable.

But truly, his skating is spectacular. He makes quad toe loops - one of the hardest jumps on ice - look easy. He can do triple axels practically from a standstill. His lines are superb, spins sublime, and his flexibility is yet another thing to be amazed at. Yuzuru has all the technical skills of someone much more experienced, with a heavy dose of personality and emotion all added onto a supreme amount of sex appeal. And I am so glad he demonstrated as such at the Olympics. 

He actually has asthma too, which makes everything he does doubly amazing. 

His short program, skated to Parisienne Walkways by Gary Moore, is so engaging and exciting to watch. I’ve had it on repeat many times now, and it’s easy to see why the judges awarded him 100+ points - Yuzuru is utterly captivating, and in a completely different league.

His Biellmann spin… some women can’t do it as well as he can ok

And his short program contains arguably one of the coolest moves in ice skating

Though his Olympic long program included two falls, and a tentative start, even now, the music of Romeo + Juliet by Nino Rota is on a loop inside my head and I really cannot stop being so very glad he won that gold medal. His Ina Bauer is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. And so is he.

Best wishes to him, and I hope for a long long career with more outstanding performances in the future.

I currently cannot offer videos of his Olympic performances, but here is him performing the same Short Program routine and also Long Program routine at the 2013-2014 Grand Prix final.