Yuzuru Hanyu appreciates the improvement of his rivals. "It raises my limits" (3ページ目)

"Their presence is precious and I appreciate it so much," Hanyu said after the official training before the free skate. "There is not one skater standing out and we are working hard by competing with each other. That's why I can attempt the hardest program, including all the quadruple jumps I can."

At the Grand Prix Final in 2016, which Hanyu won for the fourth consecutive time, both Chen and Uno scored higher than Hanyu in the free skate. In the U.S. Figure Skating Championships afterward, Chen successfully executed four quadruple jumps of three kinds in the first stage and five quadruple jumps of four kinds in the latter stage. Uno also revealed he intended to attempt four quadruple jumps of three kinds.

Although Uno fell down twice at the triple Axel, he successfully landed on the ice with four quadruple jumps of four kinds, earning 288.05 points in total.

In the free skate, Hanyu finely executed his first quadruple loop and a quadruple Salchow, followed by gracefully flowing perfect skating. In the latter stage, however, he popped a quadruple Salchow, decreasing it to a double, and jumped a single loop in desperation, which was regarded as a mistake.

But then, Hanyu started to show great skating with a strong will. He neatly executed a quadruple toe loop and a triple Axel + triple toe loop. He then made a points recovery by shifting from a triple jump to a quadruple toe loop, and from the final triple Lutz to a triple Axel. It was a recovery program he had only performed successfully once in training, and one which Hanyu had felt would be "unrealistic".