Yuzuru Hanyu Awarded the 1,000th Gold Medal in Winter Olympics History

Yuzuru Hanyu's legend continued to grow Friday (Saturday in Pyeongchang) when he captured a gold medal in men's singles figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. 

Hanyu, who hails from Japan, finished ahead of the rest of the field with a total score of 317.85 (111.68 in the short program and 206.17 in the free skate). According to the Associated Press (h/t NBC Olympics), his victory marked the 1,000 gold medal in Winter Olympics history since they started in 1924.

By virtue of his triumphant effort, Hanyu also became the first male figure skater to repeat as the singles champion since Dick Button at the 1952 Olympics.

Hanyu first burst on the scene at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, when he captured gold at 19 years old. 

That performance made Hanyu the odds-on favorite to capture gold again in Pyeongchang, but he suffered a hard fall in practice in November that prevented him from skating for eight weeks with Olympic preparations well underway. 

"There were two months where I couldn't skate at all and that was tough," he said, according to Reuters' Elaine Lies. "I actually did kind of wonder if it would get better."

Not only did it get better, but Hanyu was so sharp that he bolted his way back to the gold medal stand on the podium in order to cement his status as the undisputed king of the men's field.