From now on, as a professional athlete,
I won't be participating in various competitions and compete with other skaters again..
When Hanyu made his retirement speech, he proactively used the word "professional athlete" which could be confusing to some
To many young fans of the sport, those athletes competing in the world championships
and the Olympics are certainly professional enough!
But you will be surprised!
Because they are mostly amateurs!
What?!
Yes! The difference lies in this one word --
are they "paid"?
if they are paid to participate in a competition, then they are professionals!
if they aren't paid, no matter how insane their skills are..
excuse me, I have to say this,
you are, all of you, amateurs!
it may be hard for young viewers of the Olympics to imagine, the Olympic games were created for the amateurs to compete
when Pierre de Coubertin had the idea of reviving the Olympic games of ancient Greece,
he envisaged a strictly amateur affair!
In the first modern Olympic games held in Athens in 1896, all participants must have never competed for money
or else they would be disqualified!
One unlucky man who suffered under this amateurism rule is Jim Thorpe
the first native American athlete who won two gold medals for the United States in the 1912 Summer Olympics
He had his gold medals in Decathlon and Pentathlon stripped because he had been paid for playing professional baseball
But as the interest to win the Olympic games mounted,
some countries especially from certain eastern bloc nations such as Russia began to run the state funded athlete development programs in the 1960s
so these athletes were de facto professionals and they were allowed to compete!
At that time, people started calling out the Olympic committee for hypocrisy
so by the end of the 1980s, the Olympic committee moved towards allowing full-time paid athletes to compete!
and Jim Thorpe's stripped gold medals would be reinstated 70 years later in 1983,
over 30 years after his death, as if he would know!
ISU, the international skating union governing the sport of ice skating and the co-organizer for the Olympic winter games in skating,
abides by the amateurism rules of course!
in order to attain the eligibility to attend the ISU competitions, athletes must not be paid to join these competitions
in fact, they even have to pay ISU in order to join the championships like the Grand Prix events, etc
even though most remuneration restrictions rules for the skaters are going lax following the Olympic movements,
which allow athletes to get endorsement and participate in some ice shows,
the skaters still have to follow a series of strict protocols
and only attend competitions sanctioned by the ISU to maintain their eligibility to compete in the championships
Hence, there's such a term "going pro" in skating,
which normally means retirement from the ISU organized competitions
Turning "pro"?
It's free! It's liberating!
so what does being a professional athlete really mean?
if you're an NBA or soccer fan, you'll know that this is the time of year where we are constantly on the lookout
for the latest transfer and trade news and rumors
so these are the professional athletes lives!
big money and big ticketed item sales!
it means professional management of the athlete's career
it means endless opportunities with minimal restrictions from the rules of competitions
24 years old, Surya Bonaly!
This night represents the start of a new life, her professional debut right here!
How does it feel to finally be able to do that Backflip and not be penalized for it?
That's cool! I can do it the same way! basically nobody gonna yell on me
I will be just free..
and what's lying ahead of Hanyu's professional skating career?
it's too early to tell!
but just in case he want to start his own boyband group on ice, he can now do so!
without worrying that will be an underscore by the judges
The decision of "turning pro" was made with great determination and a hope for a better future
So I can confidently say this "Please look forward to my future performance"
And in the future, I can perform in not just the restricted competitions,
I would have more opportunities to show my figure skating to everyone
So please look forward to it :)