2016-17 season: Building...

It almost feels like barely any time has passed, but it's already the third season of this Olympic quadrennial. This is when the people who may podium at the 2018 Winter Olympics start to truly assert themselves at the top of the world stage. This season, the pressure starts to build. We already know that Yuzuru Hanyu can live up to the challenge.

For the first season in a while, Yuzuru skated to two completely new programs. His short program for this season was to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy," and it was choreographed by the wonderful Jeffrey Buttle. This is the first music Yuzu has ever skated to in competition that includes words, which is a really fun change from his usual pace. The program starts with the song's classic narration intro, and then picks up into something more fun and playful. At the 2016 Autumn Classic International, he was wearing an outfit that was mostly white, which quickly changed not too long after (as he blended in just a bit with the ice).

When he debuted this program, though, he did something incredible: he was the first person to ever land a quadruple Loop jump in competition, and it was fully rotated and cleanly landed, if lacking in a little bit of speed. In his combination, though, Yuzuru popped what was supposed to be a 4S into a 1S, and then fell on his attempt at a 3T after it (if he hadn't attempted the 3T, though, he wouldn't have received points for that element at all). After this, though, he did a beautiful 3A, of course (best in the business); he earned just above 88 points for this performance. There's no video of this performance on YouTube for me to embed directly, but here is a link on Dailymotion. I do highly recommend watching the first ever 4Lo landed in competition.

Yuzu's free skate for this season was a composition of Pretender's "View of Silence" and Joe Hisaishi's "Asian Dream Song" that Yuzuru himself dubbed "Hope and Legacy." It's slower and much more subtle in its interpretation than what Yuzuru usually does (normally he's all about the drama), but it's just as beautiful. In his debut of the free skate during 2016 ACI, he did yet another 4Lo that was rotated fully, but a little far back on the landing (still clean). He had a a clean 4S, a 3F that was very forward, and then popped his 4S into a 3S and did a 2T instead of a 3T to complete the combination. He fell on his 4T and it was called underrotated, had a clean 3A+2T, did a 3A+1T+1Lo after his Axel was too far back, and then fell on his last 3Lz. Despite this, he still won first place in the competition, but with a score much lower than he's gotten in a while.

At his next competition, the 2016 Skate Canada International and his first GPF qualifying event, Yuzu fell on his opening quad loop, tripled his 3S and didn't do a combination, but somehow still did a flawless 3A off of a back-counter in the second half of the program. He earned 79.65 points and went into the free skating in 4th place, 11 points behind 1st.

2016 Skate Canada Free - 3A+Eu+3S

2016 Skate Canada Free - Little Stumble at End of Program

He put down a much better, but still flawed, free program the next day. He fell on his opening quad loop and popped his 4S+3T into a 2S+3T, but the rest of the jumps were amazing. A particular highlight was his 3F, which came straight out of a billion steps and turns, and also both of his 3A combinations. He stumbled a little at the very end of his program right as he finished his last spin, but recovered well and seemed to be decently happy with his program after he was done. Overall, he earned 183.41 points for the free skate and a total of 263.06, raising himself up from fourth place to second, right behind Patrick Chan.

At the 2016 NHK Trophy, Yuzu had his cleanest short program of the season so far; he stepped out of his opening 4Lo, but had a stunning 4S+3T combination soon after. His home croud seemed to give him a lot of energy; he seemed to be enjoying himself a lot more during this performance than his others so far. Of course, he did a flawless 3A and earned unanimous +3 GOEs from the judges. He earned 103.89 points for his short, his first time getting over a hundred points for the season, and went into the free skating 13 points ahead of second place.

2016 NHK Short Program Highlight

2016 NHK - Yuzuru Hanyu Free Skate

His free program at NHK was beautiful. He finally landed another 4Lo in the Grand Prix circuit, and it was so off-axis at first, but he found his center again just in time to have a perfectly clean landing. Johnny Weir called him "agile like a freshly-born kitten," which was a new one to me but definitely made me laugh. He landed a flawless 4S and 3F afterward, but then fell on his 4S. His 4T was perfect, as well as his 3A+3T, but he popped his 3S into a 2S in a 3A+Eu+2S. He closed out his program with a clean 3Lz and a beautiful closing spin--as he struck his ending pose, he had a huge smile on his face. He earned 197.58 points for the free skating and once again broke the 300-point barrier for his total score with 301.47 points. He took the gold medal 32.56 points ahead of second place and qualified for the Grand Prix Final.

2016 GPF - Yuzuru Hanyu Short Program

During his short program at the 2016 Grand Prix Final, Yuzuru once again landed the quad loop, but it was with absolutely zero speed coming out of it--somehow, he still managed a spread-eagle right after it. His 4S+3T combination was flawless, as was his 3A, and a really fun highlight was his second spin--it had incredible speed and was so much fun to watch. He was even more invested in his step sequence than he was at NHK--he had a huge smile on his face and was so energized throughout. His last spin was flawless, too; so perfectly centered, so much speed, so much fun. It was an incredible short program even considering his rough 4Lo at the beginning. He earned 106.53 points, a new season's best and just an incredible score overall; he went into the free skate 7 points ahead of second place.

In the free skate at the Grand Prix Final two days later, he faltered just a little. He landed another quad loop, but it was a little forward on the landing. His 4S was flawless, as was his 3F. The step sequence right before the 3F was so pretty, soft and delicate. On his next jump, what was supposed to be the 4S+3T, he fell on the 4S and couldn't complete a combination. He had a beautiful 3A+3T, but stepped out of his 3A, disguised the step-out as an Euler, and did a 2S to complete the sequence. Instead of the planned 3Lz, he did a 1Lz. He earned 187.37 points for the free skating, which was 3rd place for that segment of the competition. However, due to the short program scores, he still maintained his 1st place position, 11 points over second-place winner Nathan Chen.

Highlight - 4S at 2016 GPF

2016 GPF - Yuzuru Hanyu Free Program
(the thumbnail sends lmao)

Yuzuru withdrew from the 2016 Japanese Nationals after developing a pretty bad case of the flu, for which he was in the hospital for some time. Despite not attending, he still earned a spot (based on his current world standings) at the 2017 Four Continents Championships and 2017 World Championships.

At the 2017 Four Continents Championships (4CC), Yuzuru placed 3rd in the short program after having his best 4Lo of the season so far, a flawless 3A with unanimous +3s, but popping his 4S to a 2S in a 2S+3T combination. During the free skating, for the first time this season, Yuzuru changed his layout on the fly after making a mistake in one of his combinations (the exact same mistake he made in the short program). To raise his base value after the mistake, instead of a 3A+Eu+3S, he did a 4T+2T combination, and changed his last jump (near the very end of his program!!) into a lone 3A. Most of his elements were performed very cleanly, and he earned 206.67 points, first in the free skating segment. However, Nathan Chen's free program score was only a couple of points below Yuzu's in the free skating, and Nathan won the gold medal with Yuzu right behind him due to his advantage in the short program.

2017 Worlds - Yuzuru Hanyu Short Program

The 2017 World Championships were where it was at this season. New people were just beginning to assert themselves near the top of the world stage right before the Olympics next season, such as Nathan Chen and Shoma Uno--needless to say, the competition was stiff and tensions were high. When Yuzuru skated his short program, he opened with what was unquestionably is most flawless 4Lo of the season. However, in his next jump, he was too far back on the 4S, slid for a second, and then completed only a 2T after it--the element was deemed invalid, and he only earned half the points. This was the only mistake he made during the short program; the rest of it was playful and fun, and he had an absolutely perfect 3A that he almost seemed to accelerate out of. Despite this mistake, it was such a good skate for him.

However, three people scored above 100 in the short at this World Championships, and Yuzuru was in 5th place after earning 98.39 points.

SP Highlight - Flawless 4Lo

During practice sessions and right before the official free skate, Yuzuru was looking almost scarily focused--he gets that way, sometimes. He gets so in the zone that it's almost intimidating. His focus definitely paid off, because he laid down the free program of his life.

Worlds 2017 - Yuzuru Hanyu Free Skate

Right before his free program, he looked really calm. He did a perfect and almost effortless-looking quadruple Loop, and then an even more effortless-looking quadruple Salchow. His next spin, with both a doughnut and Biellmann variation, was relaxed and beautiful. His step sequence was elegant and compelling, skating smoothly and with deep edges. His did plenty of steps straight into a camoflauged 3F, just as flawless as the preceding jumps. His next jumping pass, one he'd been struggling with all season, was the 4S+3T past the halfway point of his program, and it was perfect as well. He followed that up with another absolutely stunning 4T, and soon after an amazing 3A+2T with his arms over his head on the 2T. Right after, he did a 3A+Eu+3S out of a back-counter, and it was--you got it--perfect as well. He did another spin, and it matched the music well in its placement. During his choreography sequence, he did a hydroblade followed by an Ina Bauer, both huge crowd-pleasers and fun to do on the ice. His last jump, the 3Lz, was clean, and you knew it was the last jump because of the audience's absolute uproar--a completely clean program, and one with four quads! He closed out his program with one last spin, and then struck his ending pose with this demanding look on his face, almost vindicated that he had put down that skate after the mistake in his short.

Highlight - Some Step Sequence

Highlight - More Step Sequence

He earned 223.20 points, breaking his world record from last season, and totaled 321.59 points; he cried after he received this score. This program is commonly dubbed by figure skating fans the "most underscored world record of all time"--the most true oxymoron in history. Still, this record-breaking free skate was enough to put him in first place and win him his second gold medal at the World Championships.

Initial Reaction to Score (It takes Tracy a second lol)

Victory!!!

During and after the press conference post-free skate, he kept saying "only the free skating" in terms of being proud of his performance--a perfect example of how much of a perfectionist he tends to be. 

Yuzu decided to participate in the World Team Trophy for this season. He only did the free skating portion of the competition at 2017 WTT, as each team has the choice to put in two separate skaters for each portion of the competition--Shoma Uno did the short, and Yuzuru did the free. For the second time this season, Yuzu reconfigured  his elements during the free skate after slipping on the takeoff of his 4S and popping it into a 1S. The rest of his jumps that were the same were clean, and then he did an impressive 4T+Eu+3S very near the end of his program (hard to do because of how tired your legs are that far in), and attempted to do a 3A out of a spread-eagle as his last jump, but only did a 1A. He earned 200.49 points for the free skating, and closed out the 2016-17 season with a gold medal along with his teammates at the World Team Trophy.