Hanyu wants Olympic gold with quadruple axel

After the American Chen's phenomenal jump festival in the free skate at the World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, his arch-rival from Japan announced that he would be expanding his rotation arsenal to include the most difficult variant: “I want to start practicing the quadruple Axel again, because I want to be the first person to land it cleanly in a competition.”

The great Asian ice skating grandmaster doesn't want to accept the defeat against Chen and his 17-year-old compatriot Yuma Kagiyma, who pushed him down to bronze. “I have a lot of ideas about the Olympic Games,” said Hanyu, who is celebrated like a national hero in his homeland. “Good and bad experiences have made me a better runner. I will do everything to do my best.” In Beijing he is aiming for Olympic gold number three after 2014 and 2018. So far only the Swede Gillis Grafström (1920, 1924, 1928) has achieved this.

Nathan Chen gave a fantastic performance. © APA/afp / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND

However, after one of the best and most demanding freestyles in World Cup history with five perfect quadruple jumps, Nathan Chen has slipped into the role of favorite for the Beijing Games. “It's hard to predict what the future will bring, a lot of things change quickly in a sport,” said the 21-year-old from Salt Lake City. “Until then, you’ll still see runners trying crazy things.”

He “definitely doesn’t think it’s right” that the number of quadruple jumps will be the success factor at the Olympics. However, he does not rule out that the four-time Axel could decide about gold. “This guy [Hanyu] is going to do it, so I have to figure out how to do it too,” announced Chen, who is undefeated since 2018. Chen is convincing across the board Perhaps what happens between the jumps will also make the difference for the frequent flyers in the Olympic arena: the ice art. Chen also added artistic accents to his third World Cup triumph in a row, making the freestyle the perfect whole. Hanyu's lackluster final performance paved the way for a silver medal for his potential Japanese successor. The 17-year-old Yuma Kagiyama stayed cool in the first major medal fight of his life, took advantage of the opportunity and grabbed silver – with “only” a quadruple salchow and two quadruple toeloops.

He wants to rehearse two more variants of the quadruple rotations by the Olympic winter. For him, however, this is not the ultimate: Instead of tackling the very difficult jumps with low precision, he would “rather develop a perfect, high-quality, stable program” for Beijing.

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Hanyu wants Olympic gold with quadruple axel

The duel for flying sovereignty in figure skating between world champion Nathan Chen and Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu could lead to a new dimension at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

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