Hanyu captures back-to-back golds

By: Elliott Almond Posted: 3:00 AM CST Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Japan’s man of the moment had called it his dream stage.

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GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Japan’s man of the moment had called it his dream stage.

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This article was published 18/02/2018 (3018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Japan’s man of the moment had called it his dream stage.

“And I want to give my dream performance,” he said.

Yuzuru Hanyu didn’t disappoint 127 million Japanese and other devotees to a slender flash on the ice who has elevated men’s figure skating to stratospheric heights.

Hanyu became the first man in 66 years to win back-to-back Olympic titles Saturday, leaping into figure skating perpetuity by pirouetting with a muscular-yet-delicate grace, despite carrying his country’s hopes to Korea.

He fell backward after landing a quadruple toe jump and uncharacteristically leaned out of a triple Lutz near the end. But otherwise, this celestial being floated among the gods of Olympus; Hanyu, 23, completed an artistic free skate where at times he seemed suspended above the competition, looking down on them as mere mortals.

“This is the best day of my skating life,” Hanyu said through an interpreter. “My tears were from my heart. I can find one word, and that is ‘Happy.’”