With his graceful style and delicate, boyish looks, Japan’s “Ice Prince” is one of the sport’s all-time greats and an icon to his fan base, whose members call themselves “fanyus” and shower the ice with Winnie the Pooh toys after his routines.

He won his first Olympic singles title at the 2014 Sochi Games and then became the first man in 66 years to defend his crown four years later in Pyeongchang.

Hanyu failed in his bid to win a third straight Olympic gold at February’s 2022 Beijing Games, where he finished fourth. He later revealed he had needed “a lot of painkillers” just to be able to get on the ice in Beijing.

Despite his decision to step away from the sport, Hanyu vowed to keep working on his long-held goal of landing an elusive quadruple axel – a jump that has never been successfully completed by any skater in history.

“I want to work even harder on the quadruple axel, and be able to successfully land it in front of all of you,” he said.

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Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu announces his retirement from competitive sport

Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu announces his retirement from competitive sport

Hanyu also made clear his discomfort with the idea of being considered retired.

“I don’t like using the word ‘retire’,” he said. “Ice shows tend to be considered something elegant and fun, but I want to remain more of an athlete … I want people to see me as I continue to fight.”

Hanyu also won the world championships in 2014 and 2017 but he has been dogged by injury in recent years, including an ankle ligament problem that he had to overcome to win his second Olympic gold.

The same ankle forced him to miss the 2021 Grand Prix season, but he made a successful return at last year’s Japanese national championships.

It was there that he attempted to become the first skater to land a quadruple axel jump, which was expected to be his secret weapon at the Beijing Games.

But instead, he tumbled twice and said afterwards: “It feels like everything has gone wrong this time around.”

Hanyu said on Tuesday he had considered ending his competitive career after Pyeongchang in 2018, but decided instead to continue to fight for his goal of the quadruple axel.

“As far as competitions go, as far as their results, I think I have been able to take all the things I wanted to take. I think I have grown in such a way that I don’t seek that kind of evaluation any more,” he said.

Hanyu is a national hero in Japan, where he became the youngest recipient of his country’s prestigious People’s Honour Award in 2018, and his every move is headline news.

But he still remains something of an enigma despite the huge attention, rarely granting interviews and having no social media presence.

His fans spend fortunes watching him compete and even carve sculptures of the rake-thin star, who is known as “Yuzu” to his devotees.

Hanyu began skating as a child in his native Sendai, in Japan’s northeast. When the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the region in 2011, he was practising on the ice and was forced to flee the rink on his skates.