"This is just unbelievable! I am so happy!" The first World Champion of the new century, Evgeni Plushenko, was overflowing with emotions. The leader in Vancouver from the very beginning, Zhenya put a strong exclamation point at the end. He presented a super-combination of 4 and 3 revolution jumps, and skated his free program to the applause of the audience. He was congratulated both by his coach Alexei Mishin and by his main opponent, Alexei Yagudin. Millions were added to his already huge army of fans.

This happens only in instructive stories about the "American Dream": every poor man has a chance to become a millionaire. One simply needs to try very hard.
Zhenya’s parents earned money building the BAM. Bricklayer and construction worker Viktor, along with auxiliary worker Tatiana lived in a wooden wagon with no accommodations and dreamed of a bright future - not only the future of all mankind, but also that of their little Zhenya, who was constantly ill and had already gone through both-sided pneumonia at one and a half years old. It turned out that Zhenya was born to make a fairytale come true! Now he wins one international competition after another, earns tens of thousands of dollars, and doesn’t know what to do with all his fans and invitations to participate in ice shows.

The beginning of this ice career, however, was anything but a fairytale. When he was still very little, his parents moved from the North to Volgograd (foreign journalists like to write that Plushenko was "born in Stalingrad."). He learned his first jumps and spins while watching his idole Viktor Petrenko. When Plushenko turned 11, the skating school in Volgograd closed down (this was the beginning of the 90’s, and children’s sport seemed unprofitable). What would an ordinary child in Zhenya’s position do? Follow his parents’ advice and forget about all the Bielmann’s and axels - after all, in the 4th grade it isn’t to late to start seriously studying, learn languages and mathematics, get a "serious" profession. Plus, who in the cold ice-world wants a completely unknown provincial boy with no money or connections? Capital skating rinks are just like the kingdom of the Snow-queen: either you skate and practice days on end, or you go behind the boards and stay there. Zhenya was not about to leave. He went to Petersburg, to a famous specialist, professor Alexei Mishin (at 11 years old! without his parents!)

"He was quite a gift!" Alexei Nikolaevich told me. "Plushenko was brought to me by his first coach, Michael Khrisanovich Makoveev, and I am very thankful to him. Makoveev is a master of sports in weight lifting, but he understood figure skating very well; he opened a wonderful school in Volgograd. It was immediately obvious that the boy had talent, but he came to me when he had already begun to grow. The difficulties of growth passed, and the diamond shone as it was supposed to."

"And how was life in Petersburg for the little ‘diamond’?" "He lived in awful conditions! First in my apartment, then in some rented corner of a communal; he was a person with no definite place of residence for a while. Practically homeless! But his goal has always been quite definite - figure skating."

The 12-year old talent did all his laundry and cooking himself, tried to ignore the absence of a shower (the toughness he acquired in the BAM-wagon was of some use here), and trained in a group of "die-hard’s" - Alexei Urmanov (the 1994 Olympic Champion) and Alexei Yagudin. Urmanov drove him in his Jeep to try on costumes and patted him on the back after every successful performance. Soon his mother Tatiana Vasilievna came to Petersburg, leaving behind her husband and daughter.
The sacrifices were not in vain: at age 14 Zhenya won the Junior World Championships and became the main breadwinner of the family.
"He is a very kind, sympathetic boy," Mishin kept marveling at his "gift". "He immediately got everyone wonderful presents - his mother, his father, his sister, all the athletes. He’ll see his training partners, and he’ll say, "Guys, your shoes aren’t so good." The "guys" pick out better shoes, and he pays.
Last year Plushenko bought a huge 4-room apartment - at 17 years old few can say this about themselves.

"One time, at a competition in Petersburg, I observed this scene: Olympic Champion Alexei Urmanov was trying to escape his persistent female fans by saying, "Girls, go over there, Zhenya Plushenko is signing autographs!" Zhenya was then 13 years old, and he was of absolutely no interest to girls. Yet now one frequenter of figure skating sites even chose the screen-name "The Future Mrs. Plushenko."

PERSONAL INFO
Evgeni Plushenko was born on November 3rd, 1982. He first came onto the ice at age 4. European Champion (2000, 2001). Coach - Alexei Mishin. Choreographers - Evgeni Seryozhnikov and David Avdysh. Plushenko - the youngest athlete to win the Junior World Championships in Figure Skating (age 14); completed a 4-revolution jump and received a 6.0 at 16.

PLUSHENKO’S TRADEMARK ELEMENTS
Bielmann - the figure skater spins almost in a split position, holding the skate over the head. This very difficult spin was created by the Swiss ex-world champion Denise Biellmann (for this she got a monument in her country - of course, posing in that very position). Before Plushenko the Biellmann was considered a women’s element, since it requires extreme flexibility, an unusual quality in boys. Zhenya’s mother helped him with this unique spin - she assisted him in his stretches for 4 hours every day.
Three-jump-combination - what can be harder than a quad-triple combination? That is what everyone thought until last winter, when 17-year old Plushenko shocked everyone with a combination of a quadruple, triple, and double jump! He quickly explained that the double jump was added in practice while working on improving the flow out of the triple jump - Zhenya liked it, and the element stayed in his program. And here in Vancouver Evgeni stunned his opponents during the very first practice, where he did a combination of a quadruple and two triple jumps.

THE CALL TO VANCOUVER
If one can say that this Thursday Vancouver became the city of a fulfilled dream of gold for Evgeni Plushenko, then for his main opponent Alexei Yagudin, three time World Champion, the Canadian West turned out to be a place of surprising ups and downs, of a battle against pain and against himself. The falls in qualifications, the constant pain-relieving shots into his swollen ankle, the disbelief of audiences and judges - yet in the end Yagudin came up from the bottom to a silver medal.
"This is my best Championship when one considers the intensified passions, the organization, the reaction of the audience," explained Alexei, having accepted congratulations from KP, "The pain was so great that I thought of withdrawing, and Tatiana Tarasova told me to decide for myself - keep competing or take a break. Before the free program I got four shots, and I am happy that it is finally all over. But here the people applauded and accepted me like nowhere else, not even like in Russia."
Today even for those few who were in doubt it became clear that the two strongest figure skaters are Plushenko and Yagudin, and the most exciting spectacle to watch is their rivalry.

"Our programs are technically equivalent, yet I was not prepared as well. The rivalry with Evgeni was, is, and will be. One needs to know how to lose. But there’s time to dot the it’s before Salt Lake City. I will win the Olympics..."

Translation by Elena