Japan’s Olympic gold-medal winning figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu late on Friday announced his marriage, drawing congratulations from his fan base, although some seemed sad that the photogenic 28-year-old would no longer be romantically available.
Hanyu did not say who his partner was when tweeting his new marital status on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Thanks [to everyone] for supporting me always... I’ve decided to get married this time,” he wrote.”As I’ve lived with skating for 24 years, I’ve thought about various things particularly in the past several years over the fast-changing world including COVID-19 and natural disasters.”
Photo: AFP
The skater’s hometown of Sendai was extensively damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan’s northeast coast in 2011.
Hanyu, who won Olympic gold medals in both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Games, could not be reached immediately for comment.
There was a clear sense of loss in the reaction among many fans in and outside Japan, as “Hanyu loss” became a fast trending hashtag on social media.
“I’m taking Monday off due to ‘Hanyu loss,’” one person wrote on X, while another predicted many more fans would be doing the same.
On China’s Sina Weibo, another fan wrote “the world has become empty.”
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