Yuzuru Hanyu

(Yesterday I did my English oral test and I talked about Yuzuru Hanyu and showed his videos in front of the class so mehehehe. This is the /edited/ punya test script.)

Watch from 2:10 to 3:50 for videos of him falling aw the poor kid

When my English teacher informed us of the oral test and told us it would be better to talk about something that is close to our heart, the only thing that came into my mind was K-Pop. I can’t play any musical instruments or read any musical notes, I don’t go to any extra classes for other skills after school, I don’t travel a lot, I don’t do sports and there is nothing much to talk about my hobby.

But then, I watched something a week ago and I haven’t listened to K-Pop songs since then, which is an achievement?? (The whole class cheered at this idek-). I am talking about the Gold Medalist in Men’s Figure Skating for 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia - Yuzuru Hanyu. The Winter Olympics is not as popular as the Summer Olympics but I watched it because my parents have been following the Winter Olympics since they both studied in USA. So, from Sochi 2014 is where I got to know about Yuzuru Hanyu.

Yuzuru Hanyu is a nineteen-year old figure skater from Sendai, Japan born on December 7th 1994. He started skating because of his sister http://krmgn.tumblr.com/post/77063861243/trans-behind-yuzuru-hanyus-gold-medal-his-sister. In case you didn’t know, he is this year’s gold medallist for the Men’s Figure Skating. Just imagine, this is his first time competing in the Olympics, he is the youngest competitor and he became the youngest gold medallist in 66 years, being the first Japanese and Asian to hold that position in men’s figure skating. Not to mention that he broke the Olympics record by getting more than 100 marks for his short program. For your information, the figure skaters are judged by two categories, which are the Short Program – around two minutes – and Freestyle or Long Program which is around 4 minutes.  

His amazing short program performance. 2:25 though teehee

His reaction after finding out he broke the Olympics record. Look at the woman's face though HAHAHA

The thing that is so inspiring about him is that he had asthma since childhood and it’s not unusual to see Yuzuru hunched over, gasping for air or lying on the ice after his long program. Unlike other skaters who practice for half a day or so, he only trains for 2 hours a day because of school. 

Another quality of him that I admire is his never-giving-up spirit. Back in March 2011, an earthquake hit his hometown which also set off a massive tsunami and nuclear disaster that ultimately claimed nearly 20,000 lives. He was on the ice rink when it happened, and the screws fell off from the roof. In an interview, he had stated that he feared he might die at 16, buried under a collapsed rink. Luckily, he managed to run away but with his skates on.  Pipes ruptured beneath his local rink, and the ice melted, plus his house was destroyed. His family sought shelter in a gymnasium, where they slept shoulder-to-shoulder on the floor for several days among scores of other people. 

Because of the trauma, he has stated that he nearly quit ice skating as the only thing that was on his mind was to survive. 10 days later, he was back on the ice, only in Tokyo. He trained by entering more than 60 shows around the nation which includes a charity show for the victims in the earthquake.

One of his performances for the charity show with English subtitles of the background song. The song is entitled Hana Ni Nare and it's really sad/motivating?? I really like his costume here too.

 His autobiography entitled Aoi Honoo / Blue Flames was published in Japan earlier in 2012 and all of his royalties, as well as a portion of the proceeds, were donated to Yuzuru’s home town in Sendai. The book came out after his bronze medal win at the World Championships in Nice, France. 

The book.

Before the Olympics, Yuzuru was known because of this performance. One of his best, I think, even when he fell. MUST WATCH.

Yuzuru’s first competition after the incident was the Finlandia Trophy but after finishing the free skate he suddenly lay on the ice, exhausted. It was later reported that he still experienced some pain in the ankle he’d injured in March, and his asthma has exacerbated with the season change. Because of this, he was totally out of shape and had lost a lot of weight. When competing at Finlandia, he was even too skinny to wear his new costume, which was now too big for him.

He has recently changed his coach (who is the same one as Kim Yuna's coach!), but then he has to make frequent trips to Toronto, Canada while still studying in Japan. You can watch his videos on Youtube which are kind of funny to see because he can’t speak English that well but he’s trying. 

A video of him in Canada. He has to take hip-hop dance classes too as seen in the video (wah look at him dancing to Justin Bieber's Boyfriend ahahaha).

By the way, he received the gold medal on 14th February after his long program performance. I stayed up until 3 AM that night even though there was school on the day after to watch the live streaming on the Internet. (You can say that I spent my Valentines Day with him jkjk). It was quite hard to find live streaming of it so I ended up watching one with a Russian commentator’s voice in the background. 

If you have watched his long program performance, he didn’t do well and he even fell twice but then he still got the highest score. He was kneeling down at the end of his performance and when he looked up, the first thing he said was ‘sorry’ and he looked really disappointed with himself. You can tell how surprised he was to find out he was in first place and it he had stated that he dedicated the gold medal to the people in his hometown.

His reaction after finding out he won gold. DO YOU HEAR HIS ENGLISH HAHAHAH "I'm first?? I'm the first?? Oh my god!! Oh my god!! Okay-"

I slept in a good mood.

If you are interested, his next performance would be on this Saturday, 22nd February for the Sochi 2014 Gala Exhibition. Rumours are saying that he will be performing Swan Lake or White Legend? Make sure you watch it on the live streaming here later http://lag10.com/channel38 . Here are some of his videos and gifs. Credits to all owners!

Wow how fab.

bECAUSE THIS TRADEMARK MOVE OF HIS LOOKS LIKE A REACTION AFTER MAKING A GREAT COMEBACK

LOOK AT ALL THE PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES OF HIM POSING HIS TRADEMARK MOVE 

this pose again yes

Look at him and little kids haish. 

The secret behind the cross he makes with his fingers before every performances. At first I thought it's because he's a Christian-

Hands down the most beautiful costume. IT'S SO GORGEOUS IT'S IMPOSSIBLE

He's the one in glasses-

- Pirates-   2011 THE ICE by yusu01207

Pirate-themed performance.

      If you are interested more in him too, go check out my Tumblr - http://galaxyrocket.tumblr.com/ or http://yuzuru-hanyu.tumblr.com/ .

He has proved that you can still grasp for success even if you have a disability and to never give up in your passion and dreams. He is a good role model for teenagers and I aspire to meet or interview him one day, hopefully.

K CAN'T WAIT FOR SATURDAY BYE

P.S today's the 10th day of him being my idol what is this

Updated: The gala exhibition on Saturday will start at 20:30 Sochi time aka 12:30 AM Malaysian time. He will be performing with 17-year old Adelina Sotnikova,  the female's figure skating gold medallist.

Edit: Yuzuru Hanyu - 2014 World Figure Skating Championships