PREVIEW-Olympics-Figure skating-Plushenko the 'mane' man to beat
2010 Winter Olympics | Figure Skating
VANCOUVER, Feb 12 (Reuters) - A "flying mane of blond hair" will be out to intimidate 29 of the world's top figure skaters as Yevgeny Plushenko begins his pursuit of a rare double at the Vancouver Olympics.
The fact that no man has won successive Olympic titles in almost six decades is not lost on the Russian showman, who has come out of a 3-1/2 year retirement to attempt a feat that even greats such as Alexei Yagudin did not pursue.
Before Plushenko even caught a glimpse of his main rivals or tested his blades on the bright white rink inside the Pacific Coliseum, he tried to gain a psychological advantage by playing mind games with his competition.
The 27-year-old Turin gold medallist suggested judges could still manipulate the scoring system and that a champion with his reputation could benefit from such a situation.
If that was not enough, he also declared he had the upper hand because, unlike his North American counterparts, he had the ability to impress the judges with his show-stopping quad jumps.
It led to self-styled "American diva" Johnny Weir, the 2008 world bronze medallist, to quip: "I've been around for too long to be intimidated by a quad or a flying mane of blond hair."
His compatriot Evan Lysacek, one of four world champions in the field along with Plushenko, Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel and Frenchman Brian Joubert, was more circumspect and wanted to concentrate on his own strengths rather then panicking about his inability to pull off the high-scoring quads.
"This just happens to be a jump that is too dangerous for me to do it. It's a big risk factor for me," said Lysacek, who won the world title without attempting the high-risk manoeuvre.
The last woman to pull off the double, Germany's Katarina Witt, was backing Plushenko to follow in her footsteps.
"There is a big buzz about the men's competition especially with Yevgeny Plushenko coming back and just showing how strong he was at the Europeans," the 1984 and 1988 Olympic champion told Reuters.
"He's in incredible shape, he's an incredible athlete, very artistic skater out there on the ice and I bet he has a great chance to go again for the gold."
YUNA FEVER
Another skater in incredible shape is South Korean world champion Kim Yuna, who topped Forbes' list of top earning Winter Olympians after banking more than $8 million last year.
Yuna fever has gripped South Korea, where the country's 50-million-strong population are backing her to win their first Winter Games gold outside speed skating.
The photogenic face, which is splashed across thousands of billboards advertising products from bread to necklaces, is expected to turn into that of a smiling assassin when she tries to obliterate the opposition with her dramatic "Bond Girl" routine during the Feb. 14-25 figure skating competition.
Along with world silver medallist Joannie Rochette of Canada, and three-times European winner Carolina Kostner of Italy, her main challenger should be Japan's Mao Asada.
After a patchy start to the season, Asada pulled off two triple axels, a jump rarely attempted by women, to clear the field at the Four Continents last month.
GATECRASHERS
In ice dancing, hoping to gatecrash Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's Canadian party will be the last two world champion duos, France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder and Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.
The Russians have kept people guessing about whether they will compete in the aboriginal body suits that offended Australian Aboriginal elders at last month's Europeans.
Like Plushenko and Lambiel, three-times world pairs champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo have come out retirement.
Shen, who was persuaded to return to competitive skating after Zhao finally slipped a wedding ring on her finger, have been in stupendous form this season. They won all three grand prix events they entered and will be making a fourth stab at winning an elusive Olympic gold.
Those lying in wait to ruin their dream include fellow Chinese duo Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, the Four Continents winners, and twice world-title holders Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy from Germany. (Editing by Frank Pingue; To query or comment on this story
[email protected])
---------------------------------
honestly i dun like the music of kim yu-na bond routine. just i like classic music for figure skating better.
but actually it does not matter what music kim yu-na use for her routine, the technical elements are almost exactly the same since when she was a junior. The costume is different, the music is different, the elements almost the same for donkey years. I mean since junior.
she basically did not change her routine since junior, just that she improved the technic. every year. But routine stay the same.
i kind of not like that, i like when they change more frequently.
