Evan Lysacek wins gold in men's figure skating, Evgeni Plushenko gets silver

Trailing by less than a point heading into the free program, Evan Lysacek of the United States did his job and did it well Thursday night, performing an outstanding free program to add 167.37 points to his total, giving him 257.67 points for the competition. But would it be enough for the gold?

That put the pressure squarely on Russia's Evgeni Plushenko, who answered with a strong free skate of his own, but not strong enough, as he scored 165.51 points, giving him 256.36 points overall and the silver medal.

Daisuke Takahashi of Japan won the bronze with a score of 247.23 points. Johnny Weir of the U.S. finished in sixth place.

-- Houston Mitchell in Vancouver

Photo: Evan Lysacek performs his free skate Thursday night. Credit: Mark Baker / Associated Press

Comments

[Psychikos]

Evan Lysacek just won the gold and he deserved it... Go U.S.A Oh yeah!
http://www.psychikos.com

[elizabeth]

Will someone in the media please acknowledge the fact that Johnny Weir was not only underscored but barely acknowledged during NBCs television broadcast. What is this about. To me, it taints Evan Lysacek's achievement because it calls into question everything that is supposedly objective about figure skating as a sport.

[Psychikos]

Evan Lysacek just won the gold and he deserved it... Go U.S.A Oh yeah!

[matt]

WEIR was ROBBED!

[qi]

Evgeni Plushenko should be gold medal

[Nina]

I Think Plushenko deserved gold. Lysacek is holding back the advancement and innovation of the sport, come on 2/3's of a point really. I don't think his first program was deserving of his score.

[qi]

Evgeni Plushenko should be gold metal!!!

[Banu]

Plushenko deserved the Gold. Lysacek is sooooooo boring and full of himself. The judges favored the American unjustly.

[Val]

Evan tanks his way to GOLD!!! Where have you been US hockey scouts?

[qi]

Plushenko should get gold metal, he did much better than lysacek, the Judges did not good job, and also Johnny Weir should win the metal, it looks like that the Judges just want to give the gold metal to lysacek, so they did not give Johnny Weir high score as much as his get, it is really disappointment about winter olympics ice figure skating

[Suncatcher]

AMAZING, AMAZING, elegant performance by Evan Lysacek! He absolutely EARNED the gold! CONGRATULATIONS to Team Lysacek - skater and
#1 Coach!!!

[Brandon Flyte]

Right. This is worse than professional wrestling. The judges have decided who will win and who will come close before the event happens. How stupid. Johnny Weir is the peoples favorite. His flamingness is ultimately just too much for the judges even though they'd all secretly like to invite him to one of their swinging judge parties. Go Johnny. Lyscek is a drip and the Russian a robot. Weirs the champ in dont ask dont tell America. Go Johnny.

[Chris]

If you're going to comment...you should first be able to distinguish between "medal" and "metal."

[jax]

I'm very pleased that the best all-around skater won tonight, validating the new judging system. Thankfully, it's no longer just a jumping contest. Plushenko is a one-trick pony. He did one thing that Lysacek didn't -- the quad -- and was rewarded for it. Lysacek did many things that Plushenko didn't, and was rewarded for them. That's as it should be. Plushenko had no choreography, yet somehow had the same component scores as Lysacek. Evan should have won by a greater margin.

[Shelly Feelter]

What a total scam. Weir was robbed who ever said that above is right....go look on you tube...which skater is easiest to watch. Weir. This is criminal. The olympics are a bogus scam. What a total joke. Johnny Weir was robbed.

[avocats]

Johnny Weir was not-so-subtly mocked and treated snidely by the NBC announcers. Gee, I wonder why? I found his programs at least equal to the silver and bronze medal winners, and much more beautiful to watch than any of the three medalists.

[Yana]

Plushenko should be Gold, and Lambiel should be Silver! These two are far ahead of the American and the Japanese skaters. They both did the quad, and Plushenko demostrated an innovative step sequence, while the American and the Japanese skaters demonstrated a neat schoolish skating. Feels like men's skating is slowly turning into women's skating... Disgusting!

[manny p]

Ok i am a fan of figure skating, i have been watching this sport since i was a child. I am American born and raised in new york. I wish america could take home all of the gold medals. Only when we deserve it though!
lysacek is a great skater and skated an skated perfectly for his rotuine.
however it should not take away from the fact that he chose to be conservative and would not attempt the quad. Its not like plashenko did the quad and failed at all his other jumps. there were some rough landings but nothing to really determine that he was not the best skater out there tonight. The simple fact that he does the quad and lands it should automatically bring him to the top of the podium. what are we telling future skaters here? thats its ok to play it safe and not go for the glory because you still can win a medal if you dont try the most difficult move in the sport. The gold medal should go to the best skater. and the best skater is the man who shows more talent on the ice than any other man! plain and simple.

[Diana]

Plushenko was far greater than Lysacek...I think he should contest the results...his programme was perfect, he had no mistakes and did a quad...he is better both technically and artistically...even lambiel is better than Lysacek...I am really disappointed by the judges...PLUSHENKO DESERVES GOLD!

[Fan of the FS]

Plushenko was def much better than Lysacek...It was a shame that Lysacek got such a high score in the short programme and extremenly higy score in the long programme...He should've been 6th or 7th in the short programme and get in the sp like 10 points lower than he got, and, of course, the long programme was obvioulsy was given a too high score for such a level...This could be a gold medal for Lysacek like 20 years ago, or maybe 15 years ago, today even women can implement such level of sp and lp...Extremely unfair judgement.

[Keith]

NINA: YOU ARE WRONG. The American won because of his PROGRESSIVE STYLE. The Russians are skating to old programs and OLD THEMES. The American DESERVES the GOLD.
Keith,
Oslo,Norvay

[Diego]

I think plushenko should of won gold. He skate like wow, like he was born to do that. I mean did you guys saw Evans face when plushenko was done with his work of art. He was just shocked of how well Plushenko did out there. I mean Evan did great never better but no match to what Plushenko did on that ice ring. What I'm trying to say is that leave the pride you got for your country for a minute and give your opinion. I think the judges forgot to do that but things happend and now theres nothin we or they can do about it. Well there is one thing they can do........find better judges next time and yes I cheer for USA even though I'm not an American that's because Mexico doesn't have a winter olympics team and USA is the closets to us so my family and I cheers for the USA TEAM so...........LET'S GO USA LET'S GO

[Maribella Walters]

Amazing!!! He's Awesome!!! Congratulations!!!