Evan Lysacek Wins Gold In Men's Figure Skating, Plushenko Silver

When Evgeni Plushenko's coach declared that the "criminal" judges had robbed his skater of his "destiny", I shrugged it off. Sour grapes, to be sure, but pretty tame in terms of accusations in the sometimes crooked world of international figure skating judging.

But in the wake of Evan Lysacek's surprise gold medal win Thursday night, a groundswell of voices have emerged, not claiming any corruption on the part of the judges, but rather that the sport's judging standards need to be reevaluated . Most prominent among them is Elvis Stojko, a former Olympic figure-skating champion himself, who laments what he sees as the promotion of artistry over athleticism in his sport:

How can you be Olympic champion when you don’t even try the quad? If you’re going to take the quad out, why not take out another triple axel and just have more of the other stuff so the International Skating Union can make it more into an “art” recital.

Plushenko had a great performance. His footwork was great and maybe his spins weren’t quite as good as Lysacek’s, but it wasn’t that big of a difference. He also had a quad toe triple toe that wasn’t even attempted by anyone else. He did both triple axels, so all the jumps were there.

But the judges’ scoring was ridiculous. [...]

I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade because it’s not the skaters’ fault. It’s the system. And the figure skating community wants to control who wins and who loses. And what it does is it makes the component score more valid than the jumps so it can control whatever it wants.

To be fair, Maggie Hendricks points out that Lysacek and Plushenko did receive the same artistic score, meaning that Lysacek did in fact win on the merits of his jumps. Whether he should have been penalized for not attempting a more challenging program is another question entirely though.

There was some outcry that Johnny Weir, who finished sixth overall in the Winter Olympics men’s figure skating competition, was robbed by the judges Thursday night. But nothing said or written about Weir’s scores, or lack thereof, compares to what Evgeni Plushenko’s coach told Yahoo! Sports following the competition.

Plushenko, the defending gold medalist, ended up finishing runner-up to American Evan Lysacek. The (albeit American) NBC announcers thought this was the proper outcome. Plushenko’s coach, Alexei Mishin, saw things differently:

“This is nonsense,” Mishin told Yahoo! Sports. “It is wrong. It is criminal. How can it be like this? They are killing figure skating and taking it back 20 years. They have robbed him of his destiny.

“There is nothing we can do but we want to know what happened because this is not right. We will investigate. Someone needs to explain to me how this is possible. I cannot believe it.”

Actually, no one needs to explain anything. But good luck with the investigation. It certainly will not prove to be a complete waste of time.

All the talk leading into the Men's Figure Skating competition was focused on how it would be, well, a lack of competition. Sure, it was a deep field, but Russian Evgeni Plushenko was still going to win. He was the defending gold medalist, and he came out of retirement partially because winning it again was a foregone conclusions. The man throws quads -- who could possibly beat him?

The answer was American Evan Lysacek, who's Free Skate was perfect enough to overtake the Russian's Short Program lead.

"It was definitely my best, and that's what I came here to do," Lysacek said.

"I couldn't have asked for much more than that. To get a personal best in the most important moment of my life-you dream about it."

SB Nation's figure skating blog, Required Elements, was offering its thoughts throughout the event.

Evan Lysacek (USA, Music: Sheherezade): Ok, that was not perfect, he gave up some grade of execution points. He skated clean. This better score high! This man is such a competitor. he won me over four years ago when he came back from a disastrous short program in Torino, and he just further proved his strength tonight. ... WAIT. 167.37 UM YOU HAVE TO BE ... KIDDING ME THAT HE ONLY GOT 7 POINTS OVER PATRICK CHAN. 257.67. That is not going to do it. (or am I being paranoid/pessimistic? ...)

Evgeny Plushenko (Russia): This program doesn't do it for me. I prefer a (slightly restrained) Evan over a flamboyant Plushenko any day. Useless arms. Footwork that does not appear so complicated. Still, this may very well be the gold medal. Triple lutz...was that fully rotated? I think it was just a weird landing ... This is not a good program, I dont care who he is seducing ... I'm starting to think maybe he won't win ... This program was a joke to me when you put it up against Lysacek ... His jumps were not as strong as Lysacek's on the whole, more grade of execution deductions, although Bravo to him for landing them.

And then, Lysacek's score was announced ...

EVAN LYSACEK JUST WON THE OLY MPIC GOLD MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 165.51 for the free skate. 256.36 for the competition. EVAN WINS BY ONE POINT. This is such a triumph.

And we'd be irresponsible if we did not mention Johny Weir, who gave his best performance yet, even if the judges did not agree. Weir, our Fallen Angel, finished sixth overall in the scoring, over eight points out of medal contention, much to the disappointment of those in the crowd. Back to Required Elements.

That is literally the best free [Weir] has done ... ever. I'm soo sooo happy he could do this!!!! Oh gosh, I have divided loyalties. 156.77. The crowd is booing, augh WHY DO THE JUDGES HATE YOU JOHNNY WEIR!!!??? I hate you, judges. I continue blogging under protest.

If it's any consolation, there's still the Exhibition Gala next weekend. If we're lucky, Weir will do his "Poker Face" performance.

Until then, congratulations to Evan Lysacek.

More: SB Nation’s full coverage of the Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics Medal Count Tracker.

Evan Lysacek won gold in Men's Figure Skating Thursday night, giving America its first win in the event since the 1988 Calgary Games, when Brian Boitano completed the feat.

Russian Evgeni Plushenko, the defending gold medalist, ended up with the silver. Japan's Daisuke Takahashi won bronze.

Plushenko was the leader after Tuesday night's Short Program, but Lysacek's performance in the Free Skate tonight was more technical, and simply executed at a higher level. 

Lysacek earned a 167.37 in the Free Skate, compared to Plushenko's 165.51. In the end, it was enough for the win, as the American narrowly edged the defending champion by 1.31 points.

More: SB Nation’s full coverage of the Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics Medal Count Tracker.

The gold medal in Men's Figure skating will be decided in the Free Skate Thursday night in Vancouver, and if the Short Program was any indication, it should be quite the battle.

Russian Evgeni Plushenko is the current leader, having posted a 90.85 in the Short Program on Tuesday. But he's got plenty of comapny near the top. 

American Evan Lysacek is just 0.55 points behind him, in second, and Japan's Daisuke Takahashi sits in third, with 90.25 points.

"The truth is, 90 is a pretty darn good score in the short and if one guy had a 90, it's great. It shows the depth of this competition that three guys got 90," Lysacek said Wednesday. "It's pretty impressive and shows the quality of the competition."

After the top three, there are five skaters within 5.26 points of each other, including American Johnny Weir, who some thought was unfairly scored Tuesday night (in most of those in attendance judging by the boos). But the gold will almost certainly come down to the Big Three: Plushenko, Lysacek and Takahash.

"If all three skate well, and pretty much all are at the same level, it means needing a perfect performance to win," Button said. "I think they will separate themselves, and that usually means someone makes mistakes. They will write their own tickets."

Our figure skating blog, Required Elements, offers its preview for tonight's gold medal event with a look at six of the contenders, including Lysacek, Weird and of course, Plushenko, who skates last tonight. 

I think he has to skate fairly clean, even if he's doing quads. That's what we've learned from the judges here ... Plushenko is not their preferred brand of skating. The good news for Plushenko is that he rarely makes any major errors. However, he does double a jump here and there and turn out of jumps once in awhile. But a clean Plushenko may be an unbeatable one.

More: SB Nation’s full coverage of the Winter Olympics and the 2010 Winter Olympics Medal Count Tracker.