The Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu celebrated his second consecutive Olympic gold medal at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang. In the freestyle on Saturday the world champion defended his lead from the short program and repeated his triumph of Sochi in 2014.
With 317.85 points, the 23-year-old was ahead of his compatriot and runner-up Shoma Uno (306.90). Bronze medal went to the six-time European champion Javier Fernandez from Spain (305,24). Paul Fentz from Berlin was 22nd (214.55).
Hanyu received the second-best score (206.17) for his freestyle routine behind US-American Nathan Chen (215.08), who had already won bronze in the team competition of Pyeongchang. In the short program, the Japanese rider still had the best score (111.68).
The 23-year-old is thus the first individual runner since the US legend Dick Button (1948 and 1952), who won the gold medal at the Olympic Games twice in a row. It was only in Pyeongchang that Hanyu made his comeback after a ligament injury in the ankle in November.