For Yuzuru, he is known all right, at the very least as the Japanese guy who won it 2X. It's reported in the mainstream news. And if according to google, one of the most searched athletes worldwide. Cos he was the 1st Asian male to win mens singles OG Gold.
As was Shen/Zhao when they won pairs Gold in 2010.
And because of that, spark interest abt figure skating in Asia. Why did you think I started following FS when I'm from a non FS country? Cos of Shen/Zhao. And they had a long career.
For those of us who started out from other sports, longevity of an athlete creates a following of that athlete till retirement.
If not, how else we know who is Alexandria Raisman, Simone Biles, Aliya Mustafina of gymnastics. And Guo Jing Jing, Wu Min Xia, Chen Ruo Lin of diving.
The question I debated was „is he known to the general public outside of Japan“?
I agree he’s the most famous figure skater in the world, but being known to the general public is a slightly different matter.
Usain Bolt is very well known, so is Ronaldo, Messi, Michael Phelps or Roger Federer. An average person in majority of countries will know who that is.
But as big of a skating rockstar Yuzuru is, he isn’t quite at that level of *international* fame, don’t you think? Even if he wins 4 Olympic golds, that would barely change.
It’s just not that global of a sport, let’s be real.
Winter sports are only popular in certain countries, summer Olympics get way more attention globally.
Outside of Russia and Japan people have no idea who Plushenko is either, and Evgenii has medals from 4 Olympics.
I mean, people will know and be attracted to stories of skaters and their medals, but it’s not only about the time they spend in sports.
As if longevity is the sole matter of importance to popularizing the sport, we can also argue, who’s more popular Nicole Schott or Tara Lipinski?
You know, Nicole has a much longer career, and yet, Tara is realistically more famous although she retired at 15.
Saying having a long career in the sport like FS is a sole factor of making it popular, is a little silly to me.
What people actually mean is „you have to have a long career AND you have to keep winning during your career“.
Skating through several Olympic cycles while not winning is easier (than skating AND medaling during that whole time), and frankly ... it does nothing for the sport... I mean, I’m not sure Sergej Voronov is nearly as known in Russia as Yuilia Lipnitskaya.
Winning through 2 Olympic cycles is extremely rare, simply because no one can hang on to the top much longer than that, and Yuzuru is a pretty unique case in general.
Yuzuru is the most famous figure skater, because he’s the only one like that, and how he’s able to push himself is pretty amazing, but not something one can expect from other single skating athletes.
P.s. Unrelated, but I’ve met Shen/Zhao and Tong/Pang in real life pre Olympics, they are very nice.
I am proud that the members of Goldenskate would not be so sexist or ageist so as to dismiss anyone’s fans because they were supposedly middle-aged ladies. And of course anyone who thinks that Yuzu’s are *limited* to middle-age ladies in Japan, I think must not be paying attention.
