Figure skating champion Hanyu a new sporting hero for Japan
Japan has a new sporting hero in 19-year-old Yuzuru Hanyu, whose gold comes three years after he lost his home and rink in earthquake
A journey that almost ended three years ago when Yuzuru Hanyu watched in horror as the ice cracked beneath his blades and the ground shook violently, culminated in glorious triumph 8,000 kilometres away at the Sochi Olympics.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake near Hanyu's home city of Sendai in March 2011 not only destroyed his training arena but set off a huge tsunami and nuclear disaster that ultimately claimed nearly 20,000 lives in Japan.
With memories of that day, when he had to crawl off the ice to flee the collapsing building, still fresh, he said he had been close to giving up on the dream that would lead him to become the first Japanese skater to win the men's Olympic title.
I was on the top of the podium carrying the hopes of thousands, millions, and I feel great about that
"It's a very difficult subject for me to talk about," said the 19-year-old, who became the second youngest man after Dick Button in 1948 to win the top prize. "I lost my skating rink because of the earthquake and I was literally struggling to live at that time, let alone to try to keep skating. I really thought about quitting skating then."
With their house wrecked, Hanyu's family sought shelter in a gymnasium, where they slept shoulder-to-shoulder on the floor for several days among scores of other people.
When the water pipes under the rink exploded and the ice melted, it seemed his skating career had also been washed away.
But some 10 days later he was back on the ice at the rink near Tokyo where he had trained in primary school, alternating with a rink three hours' drive north from his home. Concerns about radiation and where he would go to school remained.
To get more ice time in Japan, he appeared in some 60 shows around the nation before the rink was finally repaired in July 2011.