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Yuzuru Hanyu just misses landing first quad axel in men’s figure skating [VIDEO]

The Japanese legend and GOAT of figure skating wasn’t a threat for the medals, but went for the 4.5 rotation jump anyway.

By Collin Sherwin
Yuzuru Hanyu of Team Japan warms up during the Men Single Skating Free Skating on day six of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at Capital Indoor Stadium on February 10, 2022 in Beijing, China. Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images

Yuzuru Hanyu entered the free skate at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics looking to make history despite being in eighth position after the short program. But the two-time Olympic Champion wasn’t going to let a little thing like gravity or the laws of science try to stop him from making history in China.

The Japanese skater let it all hang out anyway, and attempted to land the most difficult jumps in the history of men’s figure skating as well as the Olympics. He just came up a bit short, but not for lack of effort. Hanyu just missed both a quad axel and a quad salchow, but he was ohsoclose.

Here’s the axel attempt.

The quad axel is particularly challenging because the skater enters the jump moving forward, but lands backwards for a total of actually 4.5 rotations. And because of switch from an outside edge to an inside edge, no one has ever landed the salchow in Olympic competition.

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