FIGURE SKATING: European Championships, Men's Event

European Championships January 22, 2001 - January 28, 2001 Bratislava, Slovakia Men's Event

What an event the men's competition was at the Europeans!! There has rarely been a competition with such stellar and gutsy performances by the top athletes. The event was headed by reigning European Champion Evgeny Plushenko, and reigning World Champion Alexei Yagudin.

The European Championships are different from the other Grand Prix events in that there are three rounds: the qualifying round, the short program, and the long program. The qualifying round is split into two groups, and the scores account for 20%. The short program is worth 30%, and the free skate is worth 50%.

The qualifying round was no surprise: Yagudin won his qualifying group, and Plushenko won his. Yagudin seemed to be the one to beat in this portion, as he landed his quad and planned triples. While he skated conservatively, he was more than good enough to win his group. Plushenko had a less than brilliant qualifying round, tripling both of his quad attempts and overall looking lackluster and uninspired.

In the short program, Plushenko emerged as the winner, nailing his quad toe - triple toe, triple axel, and triple lutz. Yagudin put himself, and everyone else, in shock when he went down on his quad toe combination. Nevertheless, Yagudin quickly recovered to land his triple axel and triple lutz, and he had enough difficult footwork and excellent spins to hold him in second place. Alexander Abt, also of Russia, challenged for second place and almost wrested it from Yagudin, when he landed his quad (with a slight two foot), triple axel - triple toe, and triple lutz. However, Abt was skating with a sinus infection, and was actually in the hospital getting treatment just a few days prior to the competition. He probably should not have skated considering the seriousness of his illness, but he did anyway. It showed, as he was slow and did not have the speed or spring of Yagudin, which is most likely what put him in third place.

Plushenko and Yagudin were both in excellent positions to win; if either of them won the free skate, they would win the title.

Evgeny Plushenko was first to skate in the free skate, and he was wonderful, unbelievably technically proficient. Plushenko hit his quad-triple-double combination, and then hit another quad toe. On fire, he tore through his program, landing his triple axel - triple toe, a second triple axel, and every other jump in sight. Plushenko received a standing ovation from a very excited crowd, as well as one 6.0 for technical merit, and two 6.0s for presentation. The rest of his scores were mostly 5.9s. At that point, it was obvious that he had the title basically wrapped up.

Yagudin was skating fourth, and immediately after the warm-up, he went backstage to gather his thoughts and concentrate. He did not know how Plushenko had skated or what kind of marks he got when he stepped out onto the ice. Yagudin turned in one of the most memorable and emotional performances of the night, and in skating. Hitting his quad toe - triple toe combination cleanly, Yagudin's second quad was a little shaky, but still clean. However, Yagudin popped his triple axel into a single. He followed that with a beautiful triple axel - triple toe combination, and three other triples. The power and passion that Yagudin put into his performance was truly remarkable, and he brought the house down, getting the biggest standing ovation of the night. Unfortunately, Yagudin's technical errors were enough for the judges to put him in second place, although he earned a first place ordinal from two of the nine judges.

Alexander Abt fell to fourth place after a disastrous free skate, after which he nearly passed out. Sitting in the "kiss and cry" area, Abt leaned against his coach, looking white as a sheet. His coach had to call for a doctor. Stanick Jeannette put in another great performance for third place. He popped his first quad attempt, but landed two triple axels and three other triples.

While the final results of the men's event are reasonable enough, the judging was not. As the first skater up, the judges should NOT have given such high marks to Plushenko, no matter how well he skated. By giving him 5.9s and 6.0s, the judges boxed themselves in to the point where, even IF someone skated better than Plushenko, they would find it hard to give him the win, simply because Plushenko's marks were too high to overcome. With only one top skater having gone, the judges practically handed Plushenko the European title on a silver (or gold?) platter, before any other top skater even had a chance to step out onto the ice!

However, Yagudin was not discouraged by the loss. In the press conference, he said, "It was really tough, but I think I did my job really well….This is life, sometimes we lose, sometimes we win. I never had a season in which I won everything and beat everyone. I was very happy with how I've skated tonight. Of course, I'm not so happy with the placement." Naturally, Plushenko was very happy, commenting, "It was hard for me to skate. I had to skate first. It was very emotional. But I pulled myself together and did everything I wanted. I have been skating well all season so far, with two quadruples (toeloops) in my program. I just repeated this here. It wasn't my best performance, but not my worst either."