Winter Olympics: Chinese fans of Yuzuru Hanyu upset but hail ‘wonderful spirit’ in quadruple axel attempt
- Supporters line up outside Capital Indoor Stadium while the Japanese figure skating superstar competes on Thursday
- ‘It’s a pity that Hanyu missed a medal, but he took on a challenge that nobody has done before,’ one fan says
Many Chinese fans of Japanese figure skating superstar Yuzuru Hanyu were upset that his eight-year reign as Olympic champion had ended but still praised him for attempting a quadruple axel, which has never been landed in competition.
During Hanyu’s free skate performance at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday, a Chinese citizen, one of the around 550 spectators allowed to enter the venue, cheered for him in Japanese repeatedly after he fell.
A Chinese woman in her 50s told Kyodo News: “It’s a pity that Hanyu missed a medal, but he took on a challenge that nobody has done before. The spirit is wonderful.”
On Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, a hashtag titled “#4A”, indicating quadruple axel, briefly soared to the top of trending searches, underscoring Hanyu’s popularity in the Olympic host country, with whom Japan has frayed relations over territorial and wartime issues.
In a bid to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further at home, tickets for the Beijing Olympics were not sold to the general public, while designated groups of people have been invited to watch the Games.
