Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics highlights: Forget Hanyu, Shuzo steals the show

Former tennis pro Matsuoka Shuzo was the highlight of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics for this expat viewer in Japan, beating even the showmanship of figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu.

Being from England I don’t usually take a great deal of interest in the Winter Olympics. I mean, I like it in the way that I like “sport,” but Team GB typically offers little to cheer for when it comes to the snowy version of the great sporting circus. This is perfectly understandable of course, with no serious mountains to practice on and snow that soon turns to rain the conditions just aren’t there. That being said when the IOC chose Pyeongchang as host for 2018, Team GB might have been offered an olive branch of hope, the U.K. is also an area of with no serious hills to slide down, hence all the artificial snow.

But this post is more about “Team Japan,” who generally fare much better and have given cause for plenty of cheers from this nation’s armchairs, including from this expat living in Japan. Perhaps the greatest cheer on my part has been that fact that a sporting event like the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics means that I get a rare couple of weeks of watchable TV, a nice respite from the migraine-inducing “variety TV” madness that the Japanese partner typically has on.  

In terms of highlights of the 2018 Winter Olympics it’s probably a no-brainer to say that the highlight for most Japanese was Yuzuru Hanyu (羽生 結弦) claiming a second successive gold in the men’s figure skating. The son that every middle-aged parent in Japan wished they’d had making the event just in time after recovering from an ankle injury that had the nation on the edge of its seat in a fashion that rivalled David Beckham’s metatarsal ahead of the 2002 World Cup.

In the absence of any serious medal haul on the part of Team GB, Team Japan and Japan’s coverage of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics also drew some personal highlights … and lowlights!

Matsuoka Shuzo (松岡 修造) pulling off ski wear in the way that only he can

Let’s cut to the chase, Japan’s former tennis pro turned TV presenter / pundit Matsuoka Shuzo appearing in a TV bit, after Yuzuru Hanyu took out his gold medal, in an inexplicable winter sports outfit was the singularly greatest moment of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics for this viewer. The matching set of tops and bottoms with a bonkers blue pattern on a white base, finished off with a bright yellow neck warmer was carried off with the kind of brazen aplomb that only someone like Shuzo can. In the hands of anyone else, this outfit would have been a disaster. In Shuzo’s hands it appeared magisterial.

Perhaps I should declare an interest; for me, Shuzo is the greatest thing to have happened to Japanese TV, ever. And I say that with confidence even though I’ve not been watching it that long. With his brand of hardline enthusiasm, eternal optimism and complete lack of self-consciousness he takes on the form of a loveable dad who just wants the best for his kids. He is, emphatically, the best antidote for the shallow mob of “trained to be on TV” celebs that make up the rest of the nation’s TV anchors. Where that gear with pride, Shuzo!

Hirano’s earrings

The future of men’s halfpipe snowboarding, Ayumu Hirano (平野 歩夢) (19), claimed a second successive silver in the men’s halfpipe at the Pyeongchang Games, falling behind snowboarding legend Shaun White.

What I love about Hirano, more than the fact that he’s fantastic at what he does, is that he appears to eschew the typical buttoned-down, painfully humble persona that cloaks many sporting representatives of Japan. This guy rolls along his own path. Where many of Japan’s sports stars seem to respond to interviews like they’re reading from a script, Hirano talks like he just doesn’t give a toss. In my view, he’s to be celebrated for it. In a post-silver medal winning interview Hirano revealed a set of hoop earrings that, while they may have belonged on a member of the Backstreet Boys in their heyday, were still emphatically rebel. I loved it! Next time make those earrings gold Hirano!

Team Japan’s jackets

Now this is quite literally a highlight. Up on the podiums, in the mic zones, and against any of those Pyeongchang blue hoardings, Team Japan’s Asics-made “Sunrise Red” overcoats were almost hard to look at.  

These things appeared like emergency beacons signalling for help on the horizon. The effect was so unreal that it made athletes heads look like having been superimposed onto the collars like some crappy tech from an early sci-fi movie.

Still, I’ve been told that they kept Team Japan nice and toasty. And I appear to be the only one talking about them.

Hanyu’s victory celebration

I’ve never been a huge fan of figure skating, but I followed Torvill and Dean over the years as a child. The sport is also responsible for Blades of Glory, one of the funniest movies in the last 10 years.  

While my layman familiarity with terms like the “axel,” “lutz,” and, yes, the “Salchow,” makes me question just how much the sport is progressing (aside from just adding in an extra twist), people tell me that Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu is a phenomenon, and even I could see that on Feb. 16 and 17, despite the 23-year-old being hampered by a dodgy ankle, Hanyu-kun was way better than the competition. He even had me on the edge of my seat.

The undoubted highlight of Hanyu’s performance (and I’m not talking about the inevitable post-performance ankle grab) was when he bounded up on the podium immediately after the competition was over and thrusted his arms out in perfect sync to the routine music. Honestly, I was so excited I may have let out a little bit of pee. Textbook showmanship Hanyu. Textbook!

Lowlight: Team Japan taking bronze in the women’s curling

Japan’s women’s curling team took out the country’s first medal in curling by beating, yes, Great Britain in a bronze-medal bout.  

I can appreciate the feat but the inevitable low light came in the form of endless punditry and analysis of just how they did it, rubbing salt into the wound, so to speak.

Curling is about the only sport that Team GB is any good at when it comes to the Winter Olympics and most, if not all (I don’t know for sure) of our curlers come from Scotland. Still, I’m right behind the “union” (Andy Murray always gets my full support) and was pleased as punch when Scotland voted against independence in 2014. It doesn’t help though when members of Team Japan refer to Team GB’s curlers as the “Scottish team.” Come on guys, know your geopolitics!

Japanese reporters questions

It made me chuckle how Japan’s reporters on site at the Olympics, having grabbed a few precious seconds to interview an overseas Olympic star, quickly changed the topic of the interview to one of their own. Case in point, “Mr. Motivator,” the most enthusiastic man on planet, Matsuoka Shuzo’s interview with snowboard great Shaun White, who turned the interview to the topic of Hirano quicker than you can say, “frontside double-cork 1440.”  

This happened time and time again. It’s a highlight for me, because as fan of English football, I’ve grown up with TV journalists back home desperately appealing to continental players and managers to say something nice about their English counterparts to make up for us being so, well, crap! It’s nice to see that we are not the only ones who are so massively insecure about our sporting abilities on the world stage.

Did you watch much of the event?  What were your Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics highlights, from an expat in Japan perspective?

Top photo: Palsternakka from Flickr