Two-time Winter Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu has decided to retire from competitive figure skating, sources said Tuesday.
The 27-year-old, who will depart the sport as arguably the greatest male skater of all time, will speak about his decision at a news conference later in the day in Tokyo.
He will make a "major announcement," according to his management company.
Also a two-time world champion, four-time Grand Prix Final winner and one-time Four Continents champion, Hanyu has dealt with a series of injuries since winning back-to-back gold medals at the Sochi and Pyeongchang Olympics.
Injuries have been a constant in Hanyu's illustrious career.
Hanyu made a comeback from injury at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang after sustaining right ankle ligament damage when practicing for the NHK Trophy in November 2017. Three months before Beijing 2022, another ligament injury to the same ankle forced him to pull out of the NHK Trophy again.
He finished fourth at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February after falling short in his attempt at a historic quad axel, a 4½-rotation jump that no skater has ever landed cleanly in competition.
After an unsuccessful three-peat bid in Beijing, Hanyu said he had "nothing more to give" and that he needed time to think about his future.
"It doesn't matter what field it will be in," he said of his next step after the Olympic gala. "It could be an ice show or a competition."
He withdrew from the world championships in March as he had not recovered from an ankle sprain he sustained at the Beijing Games.
Hanyu returned to the ice for the four-stop "Fantasy on Ice" show which took place in May and June in Japan.
A native of Sendai in northeastern Japan's Tohoku region, Hanyu, who started skating at age 4, survived the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the area and became a local hero when he won his first Olympic gold at Sochi in 2014 as a teenager.
He is the youngest recipient of the Japanese government's People's Honor Award, having received the award from then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he was 23.