Юляша ...
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Parts from newspapers...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/sport ... skate.htmlPlushenko, Once Untouchable, Faces Competition ... “I’m in history already because I’m back after not skating for three and a half years, and then I won the Europeans, I won the nationals, I won a Grand Prix and I didn’t skate bad today,” Plushenko, 27, said. “So I would take any result — fifth, fourth, third, second. Oh, yeah, sure, it would be nice to win the gold medal, but I don’t have to.”
Plushenko acknowledged having jitters as he entered the Olympic rink. About 11,000 spectators watched him at the packed-to-the-brim Pacific Coliseum. Hundreds of people waved Russian flags, including one with the words, “Plushenko, your dream is our dream.”
The entire Russian men’s Olympic ice hockey team also had tuned into Plushenko’s performance. Alex Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals left wing who plays for the Russian team, had sent a message of support to Plushenko through Plushenko’s agent.
“It said the whole team is holding hands for you and watching you,” the agent, Ari Zakarian, said.
Knowing he was one of the biggest draws here, Plushenko gave the spectators exactly what they were waiting for.
Just after starting the program, he landed a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination. As he flew into the air, his gold necklace whipped around and glittered under the lights. It was so breathtaking that it caused the crowd to hush. Not once did he look as if he was exerting any effort.
When he finished, he kissed his knuckles and wielded an imaginary sword in the air before slipping the sword back into an imaginary sheath.
His coach, Aleksei Mishin, said that any skater who wanted to win the gold medal should be trying the quad, a high-scoring jump that requires four full revolutions in the air.
But among the skaters in the top three Tuesday, only Plushenko tried it.
...
“I just can’t do it at the Olympic Games,” Joubert said. “Every time, it goes badly.”
All those skaters will have one day to regroup and prepare for the free skate, where they will chase one person: Plushenko.
“It’s the Olympic Games, so I will be nervous,” Plushenko said. “But I have a gold Olympic medal and I have a silver Olympic medal. I don’t care about the result.”
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http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancou ... oly,220093Plushenko lands quad, sets bar highReigning Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko has served notice to the rest of the figure skating competition.
Like Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao in the pairs competition, Plushenko skated early and posted a score that will be hard to beat. His 90.85 mark is just shy of the record 91.30 he set at last month’s European Championships.
Skating to Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,” the 27-year-old Russian opened with a big quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination, followed by a triple Axel, and triple Lutz. The jump content he laid down is the hardest being attempted by any man in the competition....
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http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/other ... 84015.htmlRussian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko has stylish start in title defenseEvgeni Plushenko knows figure skaters score no points for subtlety.
So he strode onto the ice for his third Olympics on Tuesday wearing a rhinestone-studded black jumpsuit with fake plunging neckline -- and wearing black gloves, of course. He wore his customary mullet hairdo. He jumped and jumped, practically out of the Pacific Coliseum. And instead of bowing to the audience, he pulled an imaginary sword from an invisible scabbard, kissed it and slid it back in.
It was a gesture of confidence, and why not? Plushenko looks as good as ever. Maybe better.
Skating 10th, his score of 90.85 points held up through the night to give him the lead after the short program. He's the favorite, but he's competing against one of the deepest fields in men's skating history....
The sublime Stephane Lambiel, powerful Brian Joubert, lithe Patrick Chan, dynamic Nobunari Oda, clever Daisuke Takahashi, consistent Evan Lysacek, blossoming Jeremy Abbott, charismatic Johnny Weir - all came to the Vancouver Games with something to offer. But none may have enough to unseat Plushenko, the czar, still No. 1 despite creaky knees and a three-year retirement.
He's on a diet, too. He ate only one banana Tuesday. Russia's Plushenko is trying to become first repeat Olympic champion since Dick Button in 1952.
Even at 27, his jumps are better and more ambitious than those of his opponents. He opened with a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination. Followed by a triple axel, then a triple lutz. There will be more in his long program Thursday. When it comes to variety and altitude, he is the LeBron James of his sport.
His footwork was the usual Plushenko illusion: Lots of arm waving and campy facial expressions but not so much going on underneath. His spins were labored.
But the jumps swept the fans off their feet. And had the judges giving him a big fat 51.10 for his technical score.Plushenko said he was tense but hid his feelings.``I'm very pleased with my jumps,'' he said. ``I was able to keep my nerves under control. When I landed the combination the audience erupted with applause and that really pushed me.
In the warmup I didn't do the quad on two attempts and I did a mistake on the first attempt of the axel. That made me nervous. I didn't know where my body was going.''
But when it was time to take the stage, Plushenko rose to the occasion, as he did in 2006.
"There is a lot of pressure, not only from the Russian side,'' he said. "Everybody is saying, `You must, you must.' ''
And he did....
It's Plushenko's to lose. He was not far off his world record of 91.30 points, set last month. One of the reasons he came back was to rescue Russian skating, which has slipped in recent years. A Russian pair failed to win Olympic gold Monday for the first time since 1960 (and with the strange case of 2002, when a Canadian pair got a second gold to calm a judging controversy).
"I thought with each Olympics it would become easier to compete but apparently it is becoming harder,'' he said.
It should be a thrilling Olympic long program, like the last one in Canada, the 1988 "Battle of the Brians.''
As for the swordplay, Plushenko copied the bravado from a friend.
"It was a planned improvisation,'' he said. "Alexander Radulov [Russian hockey player] does it when he scores a goal. I decided to do the same.''
Touché, Evgeni. Let's see what he unleashes next.
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http://www.ctvolympics.ca/figure-skatin ... 43473.htmlSoaring Plushenko leads the packVANCOUVER - Say what you will about the skills of one Evgeni Plushenko, but the Russian threw down the gauntlet Tuesday night in the men's short program at the Olympics Games, doing a quad combination and declaring an apparent victory for the four-rotation jump.
Or so he thought.
Although he skated early, Plushenko won the short program with his quad-triple combination - but only just. The reigning world champion Evan Lysacek came within 0.55 points of defeating him, without a quad. And Japanese champion Daisuke Takahashi turned it into a race, too, only 0.05 points back of Lysacek. He too, did not do a quad.
Skating with the big boys, Canadian champion Patrick Chan of Toronto fumbled, ever so slightly, but just enough to drive him down to seventh place....
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Off four years, since he won gold in Turin, Plushenko admitted to nerves, but didn't show them. He didn't put a foot wrong. His spins have improved. He showed off complex turns in his footwork, making difficult changes of edge. And he landed a quadruple toe loop - triple toe loop combination seemingly with the ease of a man stretching his legs.
"Without quad, it's women's skating," declared Plushenko before most of the top men had skated. He lost 68 kilos to get to the Olympics and prove he was still the world's best.
And he hasn't finished the diet, he said. "I need to lose weight to be a figure skater," he said with a grin. He said he ate only one banana all day.
In spite of his lack of nourishment, Plushenko scored 90.85 for his short program, just short of the world record of 91.30 he set at the European championships last month.
"I made history already, because I'm back,'' he said without modesty. "I didn't skate 3 1/2 years. I won Europeans. I won [Russian] nationals. I won a Grand Prix, and not bad skate here today. Of course, it's not the end of fighting. Fighting is going to be in the free program."
It's never easy, Plushenko said. "If somebody going to say like today, I'm not nervous, or I skated easy, I'm not tired, that's not right. I'm not going to believe him because all the time it's hard. And it's hard for me because I didn't skate.''....
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http://www.japantoday.com/category/spor ... ashi-thirdPlushenko wins short program; Takahashi third ... As he took the ice, longtime coach Alexei Mishin pumped his fist, as if to tell his star pupil, “Strength!”
Not that Plushenko needed any reminders.
“This is the symbol of every strong man,” Mishin said. “He was strong.”
Plushenko’s jumps were impressive as always. His quadruple toe loop-triple toe combination was huge and done with more ease than some skaters can manage in a single. His triple axel was done with perfect control, so much so that he showed off a little, changing his edge back and forth to produce a sassy swerve—right in time to the music, no less.
While his spins still aren’t in the same category as Lambiel’s, they were much improved from four years ago. His combination spin was perfectly centered and done so fast he’s lucky the gold charms on his necklace didn’t go flying into the crowd....
“I did a clean program and that’s important to me,” Plushenko said. “This is my third Olympic Games and I skated not bad. I’ll take any result in the Olympic Games.”
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"Evil" Russian
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