Winter Olympics 2022 - ‘There's no coming back from that’ – Yuzuru Hanyu hits hole as three-peat dealt fatal blow

Updated 08/02/2022 at 09:26 GMT

Yuzuru Hanyu’s hope of becoming a third straight Olympic gold were dealt a fatal blow as he hit a hole in the ice. The 27-year-old’s attempt to complete a quadruple Salchow as his first element was undone by the misstep and he would finish the programme in eighth position. Watch every moment of Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on discovery+.

‘No! Speechless!’ – Devastating Hanyu blunder ends three-peat dream

Yuzuru Hanyu’s hopes of claiming a third straight Olympic gold were dealt a fatal blow after hitting a hole in the short programme.

The two-time reigning Olympic champion Hanyu, known as "the Ice Prince", had been tipped to three-peat in Beijing after picking up golds in Sochi and Pyeongchang.

However, Hanyu failed to complete his first element and Simon Reed on Eurosport commentary immediately pounced on the severity of the situation, exclaiming: “no!”.

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Hanyu would complete the rest of his routine with the elegance expected of the 27-year-old. However, he reportedly muttered “hamatta” as he left the ice, denoting the fact that his blade had fallen into a hole on the ice surface, thus preventing him from executing a quadruple Salchow.

It was a fatal error and Hanyu confirmed after that a hole created by a previous skater had been his undoing, before adding that he resolved himself to focus on the rest of his skate.

‘Oh boy! He's not going to retain his Olympic title’ – Huge blunder hits Hanyu Olympic dream

“When I took off I hit a hole,” said Hanyu. “I was on a hole so I couldn’t take off for the first jump.

“I thought, ‘okay, this is unlucky’, and I just focussed on the next part and I loved the music.”

The two-time Olympic champion would finish with a score of 95.15 after executing a quad toeloop, a triple toeloop and a triple axel but Simon Reed on commentary detailed the issue.

“There is no coming back from what happened on that first jump,” began Reed. “He is looking down at the ice.”

“Oh boy, he is not going to retain his Olympic title – that is for sure. Was it pressure? He has never really suffered from pressure but it was a huge mistake.”

'A little confused' - Hanyu at a loss to explain short programme disaster

Reed added that the brilliance of the rest of the skate meant that the two-time Olympic champion would place near the top of the virtual standings with several other competitors to come. He finished with a score of 95.15 for eighth spot ahead of the free programme on Thursday.

“He is normally fantastic all the time. And that is what made him a double Olympic champion. He really did produce after that [error] but it is probably going to be too late to get the gold. He might get on the podium because he is so staggeringly good.”

Hanyu was 21st out of 30 competitors and he moved into second on the virtual leaderboard. However, he would eventually finish eighth after his great rival Nathen Chen produced a world-record score of 113.97.