Evgeni Plushenko, Evan Lysacek Lead After Men's Figure Skating Short Program in Vancouver

When the last skater left the ice at the close of the men's figure skating short program round tonight in Vancouver, Russia's Evgeni Plushenko and the United States' Evan Lysacek found themselves precisely where they'd planned to be all along: Leading the pack. Plushenko edged Lysacek for the top spot by .55 point with a total of 90.85, to Lysacek's 90.30. Japanese dynamo Daisuke Takahashi sits in third heading into Thursday's medal-deciding free skate, trailing Lysacek by just .05 point.

For Team USA, Johnny Weir and reigning US Champ Jeremy Abbott also competed, finishing the night in positions 6 and 15.

Clad in black and glittering silver, Evgeni (also written Yevgeny, depending on the source) Plushenko absolutely dazzled the crowd when he opened his routine, set to the tune of Concierto de Aranjuez, with a sucessfully orchestrated quadruple-triple combination. He went on to skate a technically clean program that was stuffed with difficult elements, but somewhat lacking in artistic merit. One of the difficulties inherent in being a power-skater is balancing strong technique with presentation, and although Plushenko's short program was excellent, it wasn't perfect and lacked flow from one element to the next. If he can find a way to add artistic appeal to his Olympic free skate, he'll be utterly unstoppable.

Evan Lysacek, who skated to Stravinski's Firebird, delivered a strong program that although not as technically challenging as Plushenko's, was decidedly more artistic. Lysacek's choreography and musical interpretation easily trumped those of his rival, setting up an interesting Men's figure skating final.

Not to be left out when talking about the medal round is the Japanese trio of Daisuke Takahashi, Nobunari Oda and Takahiko Kozuka, who finished the short program round in positions 3, 4 and 8. Each man delivered an excellent routine and any of them could take a medal on any given day.

Frenchman Brian Joubert, who was expected to contend for gold with his wide array of quadruple and triple jumps, suffered through a disastrous short program that left him in 18th place and well out of men's figure skating Olympic medal contention.

Johnny Weir, perhaps Team USA's most outspoken and dramatic member in addition to being the Olympic roommate of Ice Dancing star Tanith Belbin, skated a highly interpretive routine to, amusingly, I Love You, I Hate You. Weir skated with his heart on his sleeve and with great passion, as he always does, while clad in a truly interesting black and pink corset. The performance earned enough points to net him sixth place, which leaves the door open for him to creep onto the podium should any of the major players make significant blunders on Thursday night.

Sources

NBC Olympic Broadcast, Men's Figure Skating Short Programs, February 16, 2010