OSAKA, Japan — Yuzuru Hanyu’s name was called at practice on Friday morning, and his music, Chopin’s Ballade No. 1, began playing over the public address system. There was only one problem. Hanyu, of Japan, the reigning men’s Olympic figure skating champion and the sport’s biggest star, was nowhere to be seen.
On Thursday at training, Hanyu had sustained ligament damage to his right ankle during an awkward landing of a four-revolution jump. On Friday night, he was scheduled to compete in an important pre-Olympic competition, the NHK Trophy. But little seems to happen without drama and a sense of crisis in figure skating.