Anna

An Inspiration

I am a figure skating fan, and it is a skater who lifts me up in these times.

There is one scene that always comes back to me when it is tiring to stay afloat, of two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, then only twenty three, a crutch under each arm, limping down the red carpet to the podium but smiling up at the camera. Seven years prior to that he had been hit by the East Japan Earthquake. Four years prior he had suffered from an on-ice collision that had him compete with a concussion and blood on his chin. Two years prior he had a career-ending ankle injury many thought he might not ever recover from. A day prior I had watched him fall in real time in practice to the third such injury, the last one not even a year past, then skate in pain to victory yet again. I found myself crying then.

It was striking, his costume and medal, and its bright red sash stark against the darkness, as bright as the look he turned to the audience. The memory shines, knowing now it became another something that might have defeated him but that he defeated it. The Japanese like to use the phrase “乗り越えて.” Nori koe te, meaning “to cross and overcome.” I hold on to that.

Yuzuru Hanyu at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup, by Alexey Filippov for Sputnik.