Yuzuru Hanyu is My Emergency Contact

It’s 1 AM…and Yuzu just fell.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This was written during the November 2018 Rostelecom Cup.

Fanyus watching the world over gasped in one epic, international moment of terror. It was just a practice. And Yuzu falls a lot – go big or go 家 (home). But this time was different. This time, he went down and stayed down much longer than usual. We could only hope that the splayed limbs crumpled on the ice were a marionette in a pile of 悔しい [frustration] instead of one with a broken string.

The poor Yuzuru Hanyu International Fan Group Facebook Admins suddenly had their hands full. They did their best to disperse the fear and keep the freak outs to a minimum. After nearly every Fanyu comment was an Admin posting, “stay calm,” “don’t panic,” “stay calm,” “don’t panic.” But it wasn’t doing any good. Nothing short of Pooh-San Skyping in and saying, “I think he’s good.” was going to appease us. [Remember that stick figure crying over the Muffin’s YouTube channel? Feeling a little silly now; aren’tcha, Sticky? Uh oh. I’m lashing out. Which stage of mourning is that?]

Stay calm.

Yuzu left the rink even before his music stopped. He slowly peeled himself off the ice, skated in a few circles (which would’ve been in HD if the Muffin hadn’t been silenced) and then took off his gloves. Uh oh. This is serious. He gave the universal, cut throat gesture of “I’m done” to his coaches, bowed to a smattering of stunned applause and was gone. Brian had Pooh-san in his arms and ready to go before Yuzu could even get his skate guards on. Granted, I have a feeling it was because he had to restrain Pooh-san from flinging himself on the ice the moment Yuzu fell. I think that was the immediate instinct of every Fanyu.

Don’t panic.

I called my mom, waking her to the panicked statement of “Yuzu just went down hard.” There’s a wake up call for you. She asked what the Fanyus were saying. I told her the feed had momentarily gone silent as everyone was probably doing the same thing as me: calling their loved ones.  

Stay calm.

I didn’t sleep. No one did. Time zone lines were erased. Everyone was waiting. I spent the dead of night in the world’s largest ER waiting room. There I sat with 19,000 other people waiting to hear the doctor’s report. I felt a bit like I should’ve brought a casserole.  

Don’t panic.

The admins encouraged us to funnel our energies into posting in the Prayer Circle. Yes. It is a thing. Before every competition, a couple of the Fanyus create a post stating, “Now it is right time to join our virtual hands and time for #prayercircle. Hear our prayers Skating Gods. May we know joy and not sorrow in this new season. May Yuzu land all his jumps, including perfect combos in his free. May he get all levels on spins and steps as well as deliver a strong performance. In the name of the Skating Gods we say shu-paa.” Okay, okay. So maybe this reads less like a prayer circle and more like a group of witches wearing Winnie the Pooh ears around a cauldron in a Shakespearean fowest. But I guess whatever you gotta do to…

Stay calm!