In pushing each other, Hanyu and Chen have redefined the meaning of figure skating greatness

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In pushing each other, Hanyu and Chen have redefined the meaning of figure skating greatness

The figure skating rivalry between Nathan Chen of the United States and Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan is enduring, but sporadic. Compelling, but infrequent.

Hanyu is the two-time reigning Olympic gold medalist. Chen has won the last three world titles. But they have met in the same individual competition just nine times over six seasons.

And that only makes the rivalry more compelling. Absence makes the heat grow stronger.

Never will it be more intense than next Monday, when Hanyu and Chen begin skating for the men’s singles title at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

What happens next week can only embellish Hanyu’s legacy. By becoming in 2018 the first man to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in singles since Dick Button of the United States in 1952, Hanyu already became a permanent member of a pantheon open to few.

Chen, yet to win an individual Olympic medal, is seeking a career-defining singles gold. Even if he gets it, Chen understands his rival’s place in the sport’s history will remain distinct.

“He is in a completely different status than I am as a skater,” Chen told me before this season began. “I will always respect that.”

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With gold haul from world meets, Biles and Dressel get more as best of international sports in 2019

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With gold haul from world meets, Biles and Dressel get more as best of international sports in 2019

In Globetrotting’s 33rd annual international sports awards to athletes for whom an Olympic gold medal is the ultimate prize, Simone Biles and Caeleb Dressel are the big winners.

That caveat about the highest goal and the development of the World Cup into the most important event in women’s soccer means Team USA’s brilliant championship performance in France, with Megan Rapinoe the high scorer (Golden Boot) and best player (Golden Ball), is outside the parameters applied since I began these awards in the pages of the Chicago Tribune.

But it goes without saying that the soccer team deserves a loud shout-out.

And now the medalists:

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Drive to push limits of greatness makes Hanyu my icenetwork Person of Year

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Drive to push limits of greatness makes Hanyu my icenetwork Person of Year


Yuzuru Hanyu has never been satisfied with the idea of doing just enough to win.

The Japanese star has always longed to be on the cutting edge of figure skating, to be one of the leaders in the quadruple jump revolution that swept the sport during the four years that followed his first Olympic gold medal in 2014.

That relentless commitment to challenging himself would allow Hanyu to make jump history first in early autumn 2016, when he became the first skater to land a quad loop in competition, and then again the next spring, when he won his second world title by adding a fourth quad -- the loop -- to his free skate at the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships.

And it was that same unrelenting drive that nearly ended his hopes for a landmark Olympic achievement in 2018.

That made Hanyu's February triumph at the Gangneung Ice Arena both melodramatic and brilliant. It was as much a testament to his competitive will as it was to the skating mastery -- both athletic and artistic -- with which he has made a strong case to be called the greatest men's singles skater of all time.

In becoming a man for the ages by winning a second straight Olympic title, Hanyu had to overcome a considerable setback to be the man for this season. That makes him my choice for icenetwork Person of the Year.

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Breathtaking Olympic performances highlighted figure skating season

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Breathtaking Olympic performances highlighted figure skating season

Some random observations on the competitive figure skating season that ended last week at the World Championships in Milan:

1.  The enduring memory will be of the overall excellence at the 2018 Olympics – the best skating in all four disciplines at the 11 Winter Games I have covered.

The full flowering of the quad revolution led to boggling feats in the men’s event, where Japan’s peerless Yuzuru Hanyu won a second straight Olympic title with a balance between athleticism and art unmatched by any man during the 14-seasons the IJS has been used at global championships.

Russians Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva were flawlessly stunning in taking gold and silver, respectively, in the women’s event, and Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond won bronze with her huge jumps, expressiveness and sense of choreographic purpose erasing one relatively minor mistake.

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Bouquets, brickbats (and some of both): a 2018 Olympic figure skating scorecard

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Bouquets, brickbats (and some of both): a 2018 Olympic figure skating scorecard

Lynn Rutherford and I checked in with our winners and losers from the figure skating competition at the recently completed 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Some of my winners:

Eteri Tutberidze

Although early records are incomplete, the coach of Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva is almost certainly the first person to be by the boards for both the gold and silver medalists in an Olympic singles event.

Skate Canada

The best possible realistic scenario for the Canadians was two gold and two bronze medals, and that is exactly what their skaters won -- and they were on the podium in four of the five events. No other country medaled in more than two.

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