Photo/Illutration Yuzuru Hanyu during an open training session in Sendai’s Izumi Ward on Aug. 10 (Shigetaka Kodama)

SENDAI—Even in retirement, Yuzuru Hanyu continues to refer to his “9-year-old self,” the boy whose perseverance during boring drills laid the foundation for his now-superstar status in the figure-skating world.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist announced his retirement from competition in July and said he is turning professional.

In an exclusive interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Hanyu, 27, reminisced about the time in his childhood when everything about figure skating seemed to come together.

It was certainly not the first time for Hanyu to refer to his “9-year-old self.”

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Yuzuru Hanyu practices at Ice Rink Sendai in the city’s Izumi Ward on Aug. 10. (Ryuichiro Fukuoka)

After winning the men’s competition at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, Hanyu explained the force behind his drive for a third straight Olympic gold medal.

“I loved skating from my heart, and I was able to be honest about what I had confidence in,” he said in 2019. “My self from that time (when I was 9) keeps telling me, ‘You still have a long way to go.’”

However, he could not achieve the “three-peat.”

At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Hanyu attempted but failed to conquer the elusive quadruple axel, or four and a half revolutions, and landed off the medal podium.

But afterward, he said, “I received praise from my 9-year-old self.”

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Yuzuru Hanyu is interviewed in Sendai’s Izumi Ward on Aug. 10. (Shigetaka Kodama)

In the Aug. 10 interview in Sendai, Hanyu looked back on his career, saying, “I was very fond of such moments as when I brilliantly landed a jump that I had wanted to land, and when I managed to clinch victory when I wanted to win.”

He added, “I think that’s why I loved skating and had so much confidence in skating (when I was 9).”

Hanyu was victorious in his first all-Japan novice figure skating championships as a fourth-grader in 2004. He won an international competition later that year.

“But the drills I had been doing before that were really, really hard,” he said. “And it’s exactly because of the long spell and accumulation of hard and grueling practices that I found myself suddenly able to land all sorts of jumps and to skate the way I wanted to when I was 9.”

He added, “Perhaps I came to love skating because that was when I most realized that my hard work had paid off.”

Hanyu at that time was training in his hometown of Sendai under Shoichiro Tsuzuki, now 84, who was known as a strict coach.

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Yuzuru Hanyu, as an elementary school pupil, with coach Shoichiro Tsuzuki in Sendai (Provided by Shoichiro Tsuzuki)

“I didn’t have any fun, of course,” Hanyu said, laughing. “I would take a break, well, I would skip training, whenever I saw the chance to do so. I went to play in the snow or play baseball when Mr. Tsuzuki was not watching. Boy, was I mischievous.”

Hanyu said Tsuzuki still forced him to make efforts, and the young skater stuck with it.

“I think that’s precisely how my 9-year-old self became ‘complete’ with so much confidence in himself, and who remains here to this day,” Hanyu said.

The drills that Tsuzuki assigned had clear objectives and were collectively intended to lay a solid foundation for Hanyu’s skills.

“In a one-hour training session, for example, he would have me skate for 15 minutes, do axel jumps and nothing else for 40 minutes, and do other kinds of jumps for the (remaining) five minutes,” Hanyu explained. “He placed so much emphasis on skating and the axel. Perhaps that made me confident to this day that the axel is my forte.”

He said his experience in being forced to master the fundamentals could serve as a lesson for children in whatever they are trying to achieve.

“When you are studying English, for example, you can’t really do anything without the fundamentals, such as vocabulary and grammar,” he said. “There would be no room whatsoever to express anything.”

He advised children to stick with their basic training, even if it appears “really boring.”

“And as you do so, just imagine how that boring training will someday turn into soil for flowers to bloom in,” Hanyu said. “I, for one, keep doing that to this day.”

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