After joining the adult ranks, he quickly began to rack up silverware and milestones. He became the first Asian to win men's singles Olympic gold at the 2014 Sochi Games and retained his title four years later in Pyeongchang to become the first male skater to capture back-to-back Olympic titles since American Dick Button in 1952.

Pioneering difficult jumps and combinations has been a signature of his career. He was the first skater to perform a clean quadruple loop jump, a quadruple toeloop-Euler-triple flip combination, and a quadruple toeloop-triple axel sequence in competitions.

He has been crowned world champion twice, in 2014 and 2017, and has also broken 19 scoring records－the most in singles since the current judging system was introduced in 2004.

Hanyu has achieved all of this despite numerous injury setbacks.

Before the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, he injured his right ankle after landing awkwardly in practice before the 2017 NHK Trophy. Being unable to train for several weeks, he returned to the ice just in time for the Pyeongchang Games and remarkably came away with the title.

He endured similar problems in the build-up to Beijing 2022, withdrawing from the Grand Prix events due to a right-ankle ligament issue before coming back to win the Japanese national championships at the end of last year to secure his Olympic berth.