The most honest Canadian article I have ever read. I want you to read this :co_ol:
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Feb 14, 2014 Hamilton Spectator
Plushenko was the best skater of his era
http://www.thespec.com/sports-story/4367949-plushenko-was-the-best-skater-of-his-era/
By Steve Milton
SOCHI, Russia Within a half-hour of his withdrawal from the final event of his "amateur" career without even skating in it, it was no longer important why.
Evgeny Plushenko was done, and it was time to cast his place in history.
The best men's singles skater ever, as Scott Hamilton — one of the other candidates — insists? A product of the ubiquitous-television age, of which Dick Button, Hayes Allan Jenkins, Ulrich Salchow and Gillis Grafstrom, the great pioneers, could not take advantage? Somewhere in between?
If you want our opinion — and whether you do or not, you're getting it — Plushenko is the best male skater of postwar (the second big one) times. He seriously advanced the sport in both its major component areas, athleticism and artistry, which arguably only Kurt Browning and Brian Orser have done in that period. And he won one Olympic title and was runner-up in two others. Then, last weekend, he became part of, and inspired, the first gold medal squad in the team event.
Subtract that second gold if you like. That's reasonable; no one before him had the opportunity to win one. Even then he is the only male figure skater in the last 82 years to have medalled in three Olympics.
Figure skating, where half of the reason for its name (figures) no longer exists, is like other sports in its inability to fairly compare eras. The rules have changed so often and dramatically that there is little similarity between what even Jenkins and Button were doing in the 1950s and what the 18 quadruple-jumpers in the field of 30 in Thursday night's Olympic short program are now forced to perform. Mostly because of, originally, Elvis Stojko and Plushenko.
Plushenko may not have completely distanced himself from the rest of the pack through his entire career as the early stars did, but he also didn't have the compulsory figures to prop up his championship reign as they did. And there were a couple of years in there were he was unbeatable against fields that were markedly deeper than previous eras. Plus, his era was the era of injuries, because of the quadruple jumps and, in his case, the back-killing double Biellmann spins.
The 31-year-old Russian has been on the elite skating scene since the 1998 world championships, when he fell on a quad at one end of the rink, scrapped his program completely, skated to the other end and tried another. It was ridiculously comical and single-minded but competitive as hell. And he survived to win a bronze medal.
He was 15 years old.
Plushenko remained as competitive to the very end, when he warmed up for an event he should not have been in because a practice fall had aggravated and inflamed his surgically repaired back. The crowd which had come to see mainly him went cryptlike silent as he skated to the referee and withdrew, then slowly pushed his way off the ice. For the last time. Many fans left when the announcement was made.
"I'd like to say that this is not a tragedy what happened with Evgeny," said his coach Alexei Mishin. "I am working with him 20 years and he had many successes in that time, he was mostly a winner."
Mishin is three-quarters coach, one-quarter standup comic, especially to the Canadian media, whom he adores. While he is always certain to make sure that everyone remembers that Plushenko came from poverty and childhood illnesses in the far east of Russia, Mishin has always used humour in the telling.
He famously described an 11-year-old Plushenko arriving in St. Petersburg to train with him looking, " like a cheap chicken: green-blue, no fat, very ecological."
Thursday night he plunged dangerously into Political Incorrectness when he suggested that figure skating could be in the Paralympics and not only could his injured skater qualify but that he could join him because of his own body pains.
More seriously, and less objectionably, Mishin asked reporters, again mostly Canadian, "to be human" when assessing Plushenko's withdrawal and his overall career.
There will always be the arguments that Plushenko was overly arrogant on the ice, that he "front-ended" his programs with all the big tricks coming early, and that some of his choreography was essentially arm-flailing. Those are fair criticisms, but do not erode his overall stature, competitive results and stance that figure skating has to be a sport, so its athletes must take great chances. He did, right from the beginning and right to the end.
Mishin also knows that there will be multiple shots taken at his skater in the Russian media for not getting out of the way in time for the Russian skating federation to enter 18-year-old Maxim Kovtun, the actual Russian champion, in his place. But, Mishin explained, that had to be done by Monday morning, before Plushenko's back began flaring up again.
As with so many things in this vast, history-addled and complicated nation, there is a misty backdrop to that controversy. Plushenko's controversial inclusion as the only Russian male singles entrant here was completely about the team event, which the host country was desperate to win and which officials felt Kovtun was not mature enough to guarantee. Plushenko was brilliant in both ends of that new contest.
And European conspiracy theorists will likely insist that the Plushenko team waited until the last minute to ensure that Kovtun, a Moscow skater, was unable to compete. There is a long-standing division between the two major power centres in Russian skating: St. Petersburg and the Moscow club of politically favoured Tatiana Tarasova, who watched the Opening Ceremonies at Vladimir Putin's side.
Mishin said that most discussions on Plushenko's career, and the way it ended (he'll still skate show programs … and make a lot of money), will be positive. But he said there will be a minority who attack him, "because they are jealous."
"Please," he added, "do not be part of the minority."
We aren't.
smilton@thespec.com
905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec