This blog is inspired by Yuzuru Hanyu’s latest performance during the 2017 ISU World Championships. For those who don’t know him, here is a brief introduction. Born in December 1994, Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese figure skater who competes in the men’s singles discipline. He is the 2014 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion, a four-time Grand Prix Final champion. Also he has set the world records for 11 times and is the current record holder in all the three of Short Program, Free Skate and Total Scores for mens’ singles figure skating. He just won his second world champion on April 1st during the World Championships this year and has broken the world record, which was also built by him, in Free Skate with 223.20 points. So as you can see, this young man is an absolute dominator in his field.

(picture from Golden Skate)

However, the recent competitions did not go well on him due to his illness and injuries. His Short Program on the Championships was a huge failure since he did not complete it as expected. Ranked only No.5 made all his fans worried about the following Free Skate. However, Yuzuru alleviated all these concerns by his perfect performance. His performance reminds me of many concepts in OB we’ve learned, including values, attitudes and motivation. Due to the word limit, I will apply the personality concept only.

As a singles skater, Yuzuru can show his personalities during competition. According to The Big Five Personality Model, I find that he is a typical example of someone who has high scores in both conscientiousness and emotional stability.

(pic from Boundless.com)

A man with high conscientiousness tends to be responsible, organized and persistent. And with high emotional stability, he would tend to be calm and self-confident. These factors can all be found in Yuzuru. He was not frustrated by the failure in Short Program. Instead, he put all his efforts and energy into the coming Free Skate. His strong self-confidence made him believe in himself to complete the Free Skate perfectly even though mistakes happened before. When he was interviewed, he always replied with great determination and confidence. His persistent and achievement-oriented personality contribute so much to his performance on the formal competition. So many skaters are not able to deal with the pressure on stage. However, Yuzuru Hanyu made it. He completed all the jumps and actions flawlessly and broke his own and the world record again. Despite his perfect skills and ceaseless practice, which are indispensable for any successful skater, his conscientiousness and emotional stability is also the crucial point that leads him into such legendary success.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzuru_Hanyu

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