COACHES REFLECTION
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BRIAN ORSER
-Were you surprised that Yuzuru decided to leave the competitive arena?
I don’t know if I was surprised. I was feeling that maybe after the 2022 Olympics he might re-evaluate what he was doing. I got a call the night before, so I knew what was going on.
In my opinion, he has done everything you could possibly do in the sport. Now he is shifting gears. He still wants to contribute in a very athletic way, but now we are not going to see him at these eligible competitions, which will be unusual. But he has done everything.
-What part do you think injuries played in his decision?
He always wanted to move the sport forward but was always injuring himself whenever he was working on a new technical element. The injury before PyeongChang (in 2018) was on a quad Lutz and thistime itwas on a quad Axel.
He keeps striving to be better. That is just the way he is. In his eyes, being better is technically advancing the sport. He advanced it in other ways, as we have all seen, which was amazing, but he equally tried to do it on the technical side.
-When do you feel he made the transition from skater to artist?
A couple of months before the 2014 Games it seemed like he shifted gears. We were looking at Patrick Chan as our competition and asking, “how do we beat him?” It was not going to be just the technical stuff; there was also something fabulous about Patrick’s skating. We had to beat him at his own game.
After Sochi, things started happening pretty quickly in the areas he needed to improve, but technically he was pretty sound.
-What are your fondest memories of working with him?
We worked together for over 10 years and every season had something that is a great memory for me, like when he went over 300 for the first time at 2015 NHK Trophy, all the moments here at the club.
We had a lot of big ones and a lot of bad ones. Our journey was up and down. The camaraderie he had with Javier (Fernández) was pretty special, and that made me very proud.
Then of course, the Olympics in 2018 was incredible given what he had to overcome.
And his charisma shone through all of that. All of his top competitors — the Javi’s of the world, Nathan Chen — I believe they all really looked up to him.
You could not help but be in awe when you were around him. I was in awe. He would be at a practice session and do one of those crazy awesome things — triple Axels out of nowhere and I would just shake my head.It was pretty spectacular.
It will be a while before we see another Yuzuru. He is incredible.
-How do you think his absence will impact competitive figure skating going forward?
It is a cliché, but he really is the greatest of all time. I have used this term many times, but he was a skater’s skater. When your peers are your biggest fans, then you know you have really made a huge mark.
He has millions of fans, but he also has coaches who are big, big fans. And all the people that he competed against were proud just to be in the same era as him. There is going to be a void. Skating needs a new star but there will never be another one like him, that is for sure.
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GHISLAIN BRIAND
-Did you know in advance that Yuzuru Hanyu was going to leave the amateur ranks?
Yes. He texted me about three days before, telling me what his plan was. We talked about it and the only thing I asked him was, “Are you feeling good about your decision? Are you at peace with that decision? If you are, then I am happy.”
-When did you start working with Yuzuru and what was it like training such a talent?
A couple of months after the Sochi Olympics. Brian was going away, and he needed someone to look after him and make sure that he was doing his stuff. That is how I first started working with Yuzuru.
The connection between us was there right away. After that, Yuzuru wanted to work with me so that is how our collaboration grew.
After I finished working with Elvis Stojko, I said to myself that I would never have the opportunity to work with another athlete with that much talent, dedication and passion.
But, when I started working with Yuzuru, it was a totally different game. He and Elvis were very similar — they went for excellence all the time. Yuzuru is a special individual. He is fantastic.
-Do you think his ankle injury played a role in his decision?
I don’t know, but if you think about the long-term journey, then yes, probably. I would assume his ankle injury probably factored into his decision.
Yuzuru’s injury before PyeongChang was a bad one and that has been ongoing. In that way, I am not surprised he retired from competitive skating. I know he is doing a lot of stuff, but he is still not 100 percent.
Yuzuru wants to keep jumping, but now he is not going to have the pressure to be the best in the world — now he is going to have the pressure to be the best entertainerin the professional world, which is going to be new for him. So, it is a different challenge.
-What do you think Yuzuru’s greatest legacy will be?
The example of him putting a gold medal on hold to attempt landing a quad Axel. He could easily have said, “OK, I just need to do this, and I have a good shot to win,” but for him it was not acceptable just to go safe. Yuzuru was always like that. He did not want to play it safe; he wanted to be the best of the best and be the first one to do new things.
Without Yuzuru, we would not have a Nathan Chen going for five or six quads and it will continue like that. What he gave to the sport is a standard of excellence, to never be satisfied with what you have already accomplished. You need to push your limits and that is what Yuzuru did.
-What do you think drove him to always be his best?
It is his nature, the way he is. The more you are good, the more you appreciate it, and the more you want to be good. It is kind of a vicious circle of excellence. That is how we get individuals to push the limits of everything.
As a coach, my job is to push my skater as close as possible to the edge of a cliff without falling over it. If you have your feet solidly on the ground it always feels safe, and you are not pushing any limits. Of course, sometimes it is a little difficult to put everything on the line.
But that is what Yuzuru did at the last Olympics. It is hard for a normal person to understand but he had already won everything. He could have been a three-time Olympic champion, but he told me way before the Games that his goal was to land a quad Axel. And it still is today.
He said, “If I am going to the Olympics, it is to land my quad Axel.”
Other peoplewould say,“Oh my God. If I am going to the Olympics, I want to win a medal.” Of course, unconsciously you want a medal, but that was not his goal.
Everyone is different, and with Yuzuru being the perfectionist that he is…If you told him to just show up, do your quad loop and your quad toes and a Salchow or whatever, then you were not talking the same language as him. That was totally not what he wanted, and I respect that.
-What do you think he can bring to professional skating?
The professional world needs a Yuzuru. As much as he gave to the sport as an amateur athlete in pushing the limits, to be the ultimate package, he is going to do the same thing as a professional.
When I saw him at a show in Japan in June, I could see he is still so interested in learning. The day he stops learning is probably the day he will stop skating.
And he won’t be skating just to make money. He will have a concept that will push the entertainment aspect.
In training, he was a maniac. First one on the ice, last one off, and that is what made him what he became.
I don’t think that because he is turning professional that is going to diminish because he still wants to have the highest performance.
He wants to be the main attraction for all the right reasons — not because of what he has already achieved but what he can still achieve. He will push the professional level to a new standard the same way he did with amateur skating.
-Your favorite memories of working with Yuzuru?
Oh my God, there are so many. Of course, being in the kiss and cry at the 2018 Olympics.
Before the marks were announced I already had the numbers figured out in my head, and I said to him as he came off the ice, “If you get this many points in the free — it doesn’t matter whether you are first or second — if you get that amount you are going to be the Olympic champion.
And when the score was posted he looked at me and he knew he had won because the numbers were higher than what I had told him.
And then there were the hugs — always having those great hugs.
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