Yuzuru Hanyu broke his world record free skate and total scores for the second straight competition and became the first man to win three straight Grand Prix Finals in Barcelona on Saturday.
The Olympic champion landed three quadruple jumps and two triple Axels on Saturday. He scored 219.48 points for his free skate and 330.43 overall, both breaking his world records from NHK Trophy in Japan two weeks ago.
His margin of victory, 37.48 points, broke the Grand Prix Final record of 35.1 points under the decade-old scoring system set by Yevgeny Plushenko in 2004. No man, woman, pair or ice dance couple has ever won by the large of a margin at an Olympics, Worlds or Grand Prix Final.
Hanyu said the performance was “almost perfect.”
“I just want to do the perfect feeling,” said Hanyu, who also broke his short program world record from NHK on Friday and is the only man to clear 300 points. “I feel like score is score. My performance is my performance. That’s a difference, right?
“I’m really, really nervous, and I feel really heavy pressure today. So I wasn’t comfortable. Please tell me how do I get confidence in my performance?”
Spain’s Javier Fernandez took silver behind Hanyu for a second straight year with 292.95 total points, landing two quads clean and stepping out of the landing of a third in his free skate.
“After the short program, I know Yuzuru was way far away already,” said Fernandez, who trailed by 19.43 after the short program. “If he does a great program, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Japan’s Shoma Uno, the reigning World junior champion, earned bronze with 276.79 and two quads Saturday.
Canada’s Patrick Chan, a three-time World champion, improved from last place (sixth overall) after the short program to finish fourth.
NBC will air Grand Prix Final coverage Dec. 20 from 4-6 p.m. ET. The Grand Prix Final is the most prestigious annual competition outside of the World Championships.
The figure skating season continues with National Championships in Japan, Russia and the U.S. in December and January.
The World Championships are in Boston in late March and early April. Fernandez upset Hanyu at last season’s World Championships.
MORE: U.S. women miss medals at Grand Prix Final

Not only he wins the gold medal, but he beats the world record along the way. Yuzuru Hanyu, magic. #GPFBarcelona pic.twitter.com/pT6IxTUJdI
— GPF Barcelona 2015 (@gpfbarcelona) December 12, 2015

Australian Olympic middle-distance runner Peter Bol tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug.
Athletics Australia said Friday that Bol, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, failed an out-of-competition test on Oct. 11. The 28-year-old tested positive to the banned drug erythropoietin, known as EPO.
“I am innocent and have not taken this substance as I am accused,” Bol said on Twitter.
Bol said his career hinged on the result of a B sample from the October test which would be known next month.
Athletics Australia provisionally suspended Bol from formal training and competition at any level, the organization’s chief executive Peter Bromley said.
“There are procedural fairness and investigative considerations . . . at this point it would be inappropriate for Athletics Australia or anyone else to speculate about the specific details or pre-empt any outcome,” Bromley said in a statement.
Bol, who emigrated to Australia from Sudan with his family when he was 8 years old, competed at the last two Olympics, plus placed seventh at last year’s world championships.
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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin’s pursuit of a record-breaking 83rd World Cup victory will go on for at least another day.
Shiffrin finished fourth, half a second behind race winner Sofia Goggia, in a downhill Friday on the course that will be used for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Shiffrin remained tied with former teammate Lindsey Vonn for the women’s record with 82 wins each.
Two more races are scheduled in Cortina over the weekend, with another downhill on Saturday followed by a super-G on Sunday.
Goggia, who won gold and silver in downhill at the last two Olympics, respectively, finished 0.13 seconds ahead of two-time world champion Ilka Stuhec, and 0.36 ahead of Kira Weidle of Germany.
Shiffrin was faster than Goggia through the first three checkpoints but finished 0.50 behind.
Shiffrin had some trouble landing a jump toward the end of her run, standing up to regain her balance. But overall she appeared pleased with her performance in a discipline that she doesn’t often compete in, smiling and pumping her fist in the finish area.
It also appeared that a clip on Shiffrin’s right boot came undone during her run, which might have reduced the control of her skis.
ALPINE SKIING: Full Results | Broadcast Schedule
Vonn broke the previous win record, Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s mark of 62 victories, eight years ago in Cortina.
Vonn retired four years ago when injuries cut her career short.
Shiffrin is also approaching Ingemar Stenmark’s overall mark — between men and women — of 86 victories.
Stenmark competed in the 1970s and 80s.
As usual, Goggia’s season has been make-or-break. She broke two fingers in her left hand during a downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland, last month, then returned after a quick surgery to win another downhill a day later.
Then she crashed nastily in a super-G last weekend in St. Anton, Austria, and sat out another super-G a day later as a precautionary measure, despite medical tests revealing no damage to her right knee.
But in this race, the Italian was perfect during the technical middle section where others struggled, gathering so much speed that she needed to briefly stick her arms out further down the course to regain her balance after a slight bobble.
When she reached the finish, Goggia seemed to know she had done something special, nodding her head a couple of times as if to say “yes, yes” — even though as the seventh starter, there were still several top favorites still to come down.
One of the other favorites, reigning Olympic champion Corinne Suter, was the victim of an ugly fall toward the end of her run. The Swiss skier fell hard on her left side after losing control during a jump but came to a stop before hitting the safety nets. After being checked out briefly, Suter got up and made it down to the finish on her own.
Maria-Michele Gagnon of Canada fell after doing the splits at high speed then slid down the mountain and got bumped up into the air, prompting the safety air bag inside her suit to inflate and soften the blow when she landed. She, too, got right back up.
With the 16th downhill win of her career, Goggia tied Katja Seizinger in fifth place on the women’s list for the discipline, which Vonn leads with 43 victories.
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