Men’s Room: Yuzuru Hanyu, Japan

Yuzuru Hanyu claimed gold in Sochi in history-making styles, becoming initial men’s skater to get over 100 information from inside the brief plan, the initial Japanese people to victory Olympic gold in men’s skating, and (at 19 years old) the youngest men’s Olympic winner in almost 60 decades. Hanyu returned where you can find a parade of reportedly close to 100,000 men and women, but wasn’t material to stay as well as take pleasure in the ruins of his Olympic success. Merely four weeks afterwards, he competed during the 2014 industry Championships and claimed gold.

Hanyu’s post-Olympic period had gotten off to a rough beginning at 1st fantastic Prix occasion, the 2014 Cup of Asia. During the warm-up before the free regimen, Hanyu around collided with another skater. Determined to compete anyway, Hanyu decrease 5 times during system. He had been in a position to recoup for the great Prix last to make a personal-best rating in the free skate and declare gold by over 34 things behind the gold medalist, The country of spain’s Javier Fernandez. Fernandez concluded the growing season over the top, however, using gold medal on 2015 industry titles while Hanyu gotten sterling silver.

Hanyu and Fernandez, exactly who prepare collectively in Toronto, Canada under two-time Olympic gold medalist Brian Orser, both recurring their particular titles the second season. Hanyu obtained gold over Fernandez during the 2015 Grand Prix last with world-record results for their brief system, free skate and full score. But Hanyu ended up being not even close to their top from the 2016 globe Championships, producing numerous issues within his cost-free skate while Fernandez was actually near-perfect. Fernandez acquired a second industry titles title, making Hanyu in 2nd put.

Hanyu experienced a brand new rival while in the 2016-17 month: American teen Nathan Chen, whom stunned the entire world with his arsenal of high-scoring quadruple leaps. At their basic showdown, the 2016 great Prix last, Chen met with the larger get inside free skate but Hanyu’s lead following quick regimen secured your a fourth successive winnings at that prestigious occasion. They confronted down once again during the 2017 Four Continents titles, and Chen’s seven complete quad jumps-two for the brief plan and five for the cost-free skate-earned your the silver medal, while Hanyu got silver.

Everything found a head within 2017 World titles, with Chen, Hanyu and Fernandez all dueling your title. Hanyu claimed their second World concept, while high priced issues relegated Chen to a sixth spot end inside the globes introduction. Fernandez done 4th, behind Japan’s Shoma Uno (sterling silver) and Asia’s Boyang Jin (bronze).

Hanyu possess several globe reports: the brief system score (arranged on big Prix Final), the cost-free skate get (put at 2017 planets) while the record for finest actually ever total rating, guidelines, arranged from the large Prix Final.

Ladies: Adelina Sotnikova, Russia

17-year-old Sotnikova upset the females’ industry whenever she outscored 2010 Olympic champ Yuna Kim, the favourite to repeat, for silver medal in Sochi. She was actually the very first Russian lady to win an Olympic name in singles figure skating.

Conflict around Sotnikova’s victory nevertheless lingers, nevertheless. At that time, lots of pondered whether or not the judges got obtained this lady fairly-one woman on the Olympic judging screen ended up being the partner from the director with the Figure Skating Federation of Russia, and another was actually involved in a score-fixing scandal during the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Fans of Kim founded an internet petition demanding a study, and it quickly gained above two million signatures. However the worldwide Skating Union dropped to simply take any action.

Nearly 36 months following the competition, Sotnikova’s win got also known as into question again because of the McLaren document. This investigation of the business Anti-Doping department detailed extensive doping among Russian athletes and a sophisticated cover-up procedure to ensure they weren’t caught. It had been stated that the bottles of 1 of Sotnikova’s urine examples is interfered with, and she is becoming investigated this means that.