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Plushenko still has a shot at medal
By Jenifer K. Nii
Deseret News Olympic specialist
Evgeny Plushenko will need help to win Olympic gold in the men's figure skating event. And he might just get it.
The powerhouse Russian faltered Tuesday, falling to fourth place behind Russian Alexei Yagudin, Japan's Takeshi Honda and American Timothy Goebel. But in a sport as slippery as figure skating, the medals race remains heated.
If one of the top three men wins the free skate, he wins the gold medal. Plushenko will need mistakes from them to catapult him to the top of the podium. But a shake-up in the standings is not unthinkable.
Yagudin is hungry for the win but also has proven fallible in head-to-head meetings with Plushenko. In 2001, he conceded victories at the Russian national, European and World championships.
Takeshi Honda of Japan had one of the strongest skates of his career Tuesday evening — it remains to be seen if he can keep the momentum during the grueling four-minute, 30-second-long program.
Timothy Goebel, fresh off a second-place showing at the U.S. Championships and a bronze medal at the ISU Grand Prix Final, plans three quadruple jumps in his "American in Paris" program. If he lands the jumps, he is in good position to medal. But if he falls, all bets are off.
And as for Plushenko? It remains to be seen whether he can regroup from Tuesday's disappointment. It is also unclear how judges will respond to his new program, crafted after judges and spectators cringed through his other new program, a disturbing Michael Jackson medley, at the Grand Prix Final in December. He finished second to Yagudin.
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com
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February 14, 2002
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