The Olympic season...filled with injuries

At Cup of Russia he tried, even though he still had groin pain, the quad lutz but fell, he wanted to do figure skating history once again but with this injury it may not have been a wise decision. Later he needed to withdraw the NHK trophy due to his injury and it should be not his only withdraw...

When the Grand Prix Final arrived, once again the top contenders were Evgeni Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin. Everything seemed to go bad, if the groin pain was not enough, he injured his ankle in practice but really wanted to skate and he managed to perform his short program and his first free program clean winning both stages of the competition. It was amazing how he could skate clean with two injuries, just imagine how he would skate healthy.
Later we finally saw his new free program in the super final: "Story of an Artist" a very original program with an impressive technique content. It end up with 4:3 judges in favor of Yagudin, the decision was very, very close, and it could have happened at any other competition too. No matter the result, you have to remember, Evgeni had TWO injuries, but the judges told Mishin that the program was good but they did not "understand" it. Evgeni said: "The program caused a negative reaction from the public and judges. Why it happened, I don't know." So Mishin and Evgeni just decided to do a complete new program.

Shortly after GPF he earned his 4th National title with this program where he showed it one last time. In a Gala in Switzerland, he presented for the first time his new free skate "Carmen" and he was going to use it for the Euros, Olympics and Worlds. Once again, injuries will play against him and he had to withdrawn from the European Championship.

Olympics came, and Evgeni went there to fulfill one last dream, to become the Olympic Champion. Surprisingly he fell at his quad-triple combination at the beginning of his short program but was able to finish his program gratefully, even though he knew it was "over". He was just placed 4th, his dream was already over since winning the gold medal was almost impossible. Nevertheless, he bounced back at the free skate where he showed "Carmen" for the first time in competition. It was a great success, he went for the first time for the 4 toeloop-3toeloop-3loop but the loop was not landed clean. Later in the program he showed the very rare combination 3 axel-1/2 loop-3 flip. Artistically, the program was superior and made him earn the silver medal which wasn't bad at all for his very first participation at the Olympic Games.

On the question if the silver in Salt Lake City was devastating, he said:" It’s sport. I am able to win, but I am ready to lose. And this is not my first time losing."

After that the Worlds were still behind and Zhenya wanted to defend his world title but injuries play again and he had to withdrawn form that competition too. Evgeni reviewed this season: "An athlete can have fallbacks, after all. It’s difficult to always win, even if one really wants to, and even if everything seems to be set up for it. Somehow, the season went badly for me from the very beginning - our first free program was not at all valued by the judges. We had to redo everything. At the same time I was bogged down by injuries and illnesses. Due to an inflammation of my knee bone, I could not even go to the World Championship in Nagano."

He has fulfilled a lot of his dreams but he has still a lot ahead. He wants to play a hero in a movie. He was studying in the Lesgaft Academy to become a coach and got his diploma already. His skating future plans are not only winning Olympic Gold but also he wants to skate 10 more years. "I want to become Olympic, World and European Champion not only one time! Anton Sikharulidze, the pairs Olympic gold medalist and one of Evgeni's best friends said: "I think that in the next ten years we will loose count of all the medals which he owns." Evgeni's hard work, good sportsmanship, humility and love for the sport have not only made him earn a lot of medals, but also he is winning the people's hearts.....

HIStory copyright © by Ximena (wrote the most part, special thanks) and Petra.

Photos © by Lisa Dick and Kathy Goedeken