Talk about poor sportsmanship. Yevgeny Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic gold medal winner in men’s figure skating, demonstrated poor sportsmanship after losing to American Evan Lysacek. Plushenko criticized Lysacek’s performance and questioned the judging. What are your opinions?
Yevgeny Plushenko, hoping to become the first man in almost six decades to win back-to-back Games titles, lost to the American by 1.31 points on Thursday. He told Russian media afterward that Lysacek could not be considered “a true men’s champion without a quad.”
Still, Russia will not challenge the results, the minister of sport, toursim and youth politics of Russia Vitaly Mutko said in an interview to RIA news.
“Judging is an eternal problem. But, the system of judging is the way it is, and one has to fit into it, instead of criticizing it,” said Mutko.
“What is there to dispute? Things like that do not warrant issuing protests,” he added.
On Friday, Lysacek, who said he had not yet been to sleep or taken off his medal, was diplomatic about the dispute. But, he admitted, he was “a little disappointed” in Plushenko.
“For him to discredit the field is not right, it’s probably the strongest field there has ever been,” Lysacek said at a news conference.
“It’s tough to lose, especially when you think that no matter what you are going to win,” he said.
“It’s a really tough pill to swallow and I’m sure he said stuff in the heat of the moment that maybe he doesn’t mean so we’ll just try to not take it out of context and give him the benefit of the doubt.
Congratulations to him on a third Olympic medal.”
In a telegram to Plushenko, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed into the controversy and took his congratulations one step further.
“Your silver is worth gold,” The prime minister wrote.
“You were able to overcome all the obstacles in your brave comeback and performed the most accomplished program on the Vancouver ice.”
“All Russian figure skating fans admire your brilliance, true fighting spirit, courage and the will to win. Well done!”
Lysacek did not attempt a quadruple jump in either Tuesday’s short or Thursday’s free programs, instead wowing the judges with artistry and exquisite footwork.
“For someone to stand on top of the podium with the gold medal around his neck by just doing triple jumps, to me it’s not progress, it’s a regress because we’ve done triples 10 or even 20 years ago,” Plushenko said.
“Just doing nice transitions and being artistic is not enough because figure skating is a sport, not a show,” he said.
“Of all the men who had competed tonight, only two — myself and (Japan’s) Takahiko Kozuka (who finished eighth) — were able to land a clean quad.
“Later, when I saw Kozuka I shook his hand and congratulated him, saying ‘Well done’. I also have a lot of respect for (Japan’s bronze medalist) Daisuke Takahashi for trying to attempt a quad. That’s a sign of a (future) champion.”
Plushenko, who came out of a 3-1/2-year retirement last month, said he was a victim of poor judging.
“I did a great short program but didn’t get the marks I deserved. When I asked why they told me I was skating early and they had to retain top marks for the last group,” he said.
“Then, in the free program I was the last to skate, did everything clean and still didn’t get the marks. I thought I had done enough to get the gold but the judges gave it to someone else.”
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