2002 Olympic Winter Games

Men

 

Short Program, February 12
Free Skating, February 14

 
Standings
Place Skater NOC SP FS
1 Alexei Yagudin RUS 1 1
2 Evgeny Plushenko RUS 4 2
3 Timothy Goebel USA 3 3
4 Takeshi Honda JPN 2 4
5 Alexander Abt RUS 5 5
6 Todd Eldredge USA 9 6
7 Michael Weiss USA 8 7
8 Elvis Stojko CAN 7 8
9 Chengjiang Li CHN 6 9
10 Anthony Liu AUS 10 10
11 Frederic Dambier FRA 11 11
12 Kevin van der Perren BEL 13 13
13 Ivan Dinev BUL 12 14
14 Brian Joubert FRA 17 12
15 Stepahne Lambiel SUI 16 16
16 Min Zhang CHN 19 15
17 Vakhtang Murvanidze GEO 18 17
18 Dmitri Dmitrenko UKR 21 18
19 Roman Skoniakov UZB 20 19
20 Yunfei Li CHN 14 23
21 Sergei Davydov BLR 15 24
22 Yosuke Takeuchi JPN 24 20
23 Gheorghe Chiper ROM 23 21
24 Sergei Rylov AZE 22 22
25 Zoltan Toth HUN 25 --
26 Angelo Dolfini ITA 26 --
27 Margus Hernits EST 27 --
28 Kyu-Hyun Lee KOR 28 --
w Emanuel Sandhu CAN -- --

 

Short Program

 
Starting Order - Short Program
  1. Michael Weiss  USA
  2. Sergei Davydov  BLR
  3. Stepahne Lambiel  SUI
  4. Kyu-Hyun Lee  KOR
  5. Vakhtang Murvanidze  GEO
  6. Emanuel Sandhu  CAN
  7. Margus Hernits  EST
  8. Roman Skoniakov  UZB
  9. Brian Joubert  FRA
  10. Gheorghe Chiper  ROM
  11. Anthony Liu  AUS
  12. Yosuke Takeuchi  JPN
  13. Chengjiang Li  CHN
  14. Alexei Yagudin  RUS
  15. Takeshi Honda  JPN
  16. Dmitri Dmitrenko  UKR
  17. Yunfei Li  CHN
  18. Evgeny Plushenko  RUS
  19. Min Zhang  CHN
  20. Timothy Goebel  USA
  21. Ivan Dinev  BUL
  22. Zoltan Toth  HUN
  23. Angelo Dolfini  ITA
  24. Alexander Abt  RUS
  25. Todd Eldredge  USA
  26. Frederic Dambier  FRA
  27. Kevin van der Perren  BEL
  28. Sergei Rylov  AZE
  29. Elvis Stojko  CAN

 

Short Program Placements
Place Skater
1 Alexei Yagudin RUS
2 Takeshi Honda JPN
3 Timothy Goebel USA
4 Evgeny Plushenko RUS
5 Alexander Abt RUS
5 Chengjiang Li CHN
7 Elvis Stojko CAN
8 Michael Weiss USA
9 Todd Eldredge USA
10 Anthony Liu AUS
11 Frederic Dambier FRA
12 Ivan Dinev BUL
13 Kevin van der Perren BEL
14 Yunfei Li CHN
15 Sergei Davydov BLR
16 Stepahne Lambiel SUI
17 Brian Joubert FRA
18 Vakhtang Murvanidze GEO
19 Min Zhang CHN
20 Roman Skoniakov UZB
21 Dmitri Dmitrenko UKR
22 Sergei Rylov AZE
23 Gheorghe Chiper ROM
24 Yosuke Takeuchi JPN
25 Zoltan Toth HUN
26 Angelo Dolfini ITA
27 Margus Hernits EST
28 Kyu-Hyun Lee KOR
w Emanuel Sandhu CAN


Following the European Championships it looked as though the Russians had a good chance of sweeping the men's event.  It was thought that Alexei Yagudin and Evgeny Plushenko would vie for the first two spots and that Alexander Abt would have a good chance to take the bronze.  Those hope were dashed, however, in the short program with Plushenko placing a surprising fourth and Abt fifth.

Yagudin was the first of the top skaters to perform and he executed magnificently.  He landed a clean quad toe loop - triple toe loop combination, a triple Axel, and triple Lutz.  His presentation was as strong as any of his skates this season, delighting the audience with his interpretation of his winter themed program, and received unanimous first place marks in the 5.8-5.9 range from the judges.

Immediately following Yagudin, Takeshi Honda took the ice.  Honda, though to be a dark-horse contender for the bronze medal here gave one of his best performances of the season.  He landed a quad toe loop - triple toe loop combination with a reach on the quad, but still clean, without a touch.  Hr then landed a clean triple Axel and later a triple flip.  His program was deduction free though a little sloppy, but still skated with nice speed and presentation.  His marks were one to two tenths below Yagudin's, with six of the judges placing him second and the remainder third and fourth.

Last to skate in the same warmup as Yagudin and Honda was the other favorite for the gold medal, Evgeny Plushenko.  On his opening combination Plushenko fell on a quad toe loop and did not get off the second jump.  He went on to complete a triple Axel and a triple Lutz.  His program was well done except for the combination, but the four tenths deduction was devastating, landing him in fourth place and leaving him little chance to gain the gold medal here.  To displace Yagudin from the top spot would require Plushenko win the free skate and Yagudin place no higher than third, an unlikely scenario.

In the fourth warmup Timothy Goebel and Alexander Abt were the skaters to watch.  Goebel skated second in the group and executed flawlessly.  He landed a quad Salchow - triple toe loop combination, triple Axel and triple flip in quick succession and then went on to complete the spins and step sequences without deductions.   Six of the nine judges placed him second or third and he ended up in third place for the short program just behind Honda on a five-four split.  His Salchow was the first quad Salchow landed in Olympic competition.

Last to skate in Goebel's group was Alexander Abt, who had placed second at the European Championships and was thought to have a good chance for the bronze medal here.  Abt opened with a successful quad toe loop - triple toe loop combination.   On a subsequent triple Axel, however he had a big reach for the ice but pulled back at the last moment to barely avoid touching the ice.  His solo triple Lutz was clean.   He received placements of third through seventh to place fifth for this segment of the competition.  Although mathematically still in the running for the bronze medal his low marks were not encouraging for that outcome, with his presentation marks only on the mid-5s.

In the last warmup group, the two old men, Todd Eldredge and Elvis Stojko, got their chances.  The group was led off by Eldredge.  Eldredge appeared to land a quad toe loop and then stumbled through a double toe loop for the second jump of the combination.  Later, however, the quad was not ratified by the referee and the combination was marked as a four tenths deduction.  On his subsequent triple Axel Eldredge pressed too hard and fell.  His solo triple Lutz was clean, but the deductions in the two elements pushed him down into ninth place, and only some nice presentation marks prevented him from being placed even lower.

Last to skate was Stojko.  On his opening quad-triple combination he stepped out of the quad toe loop and then landed the triple toe loop.  His triple Axel was clean as was the solo triple Lutz, but the Lutz was not executed out of footwork for a minor deduction.  He did a nice job and skated with decent speed, but the judges were not cutting the old-timers any slack and he ended up in seventh place.

The third American in the event, Michael Weiss, had led off the skating and placed eighth.  He two footed a quad toe loop which was combined with a double toe loop.  His triple Axel was clean but had a poor quality landing, while his triple Lutz was well done.  Except for the first two elements it was a decent skate which improved as it went along, but from his marks it was clear he, like Eldredge and Stojko now had little chance of cracking the top five.

Canadian Emanuel Sandhu withdrew from the competition prior to the event due to injury.

 

Free Skate

 
Starting Order - Free Skating
  1. Sergei Rylov  AZE
  2. Yosuke Takeuchi  JPN
  3. Dmitri Dmitrenko  UKR
  4. Min Zhang  CHN
  5. Gheorghe Chiper  ROM
  6. Roman Skoniakov  UZB
  7. Stepahne Lambiel  SUI
  8. Kevin van der Perren  BEL
  9. Vakhtang Murvanidze  GEO
  10. Yunfei Li  CHN
  11. Sergei Davydov  BLR
  12. Brian Joubert  FRA
  13. Todd Eldredge  USA
  14. Elvis Stojko  CAN
  15. Michael Weiss  USA
  16. Frederic Dambier  FRA
  17. Ivan Dinev  BUL
  18. Anthony Liu  AUS
  19. Chengjiang Li  CHN
  20. Takeshi Honda  JPN
  21. Evgeny Plushenko  RUS
  22. Timothy Goebel  USA
  23. Alexander Abt  RUS
  24. Alexei Yagudin  RUS

 

Free Skating Placements
Place Skater  
1 Alexei Yagudin RUS
2 Evgeny Plushenko RUS
3 Timothy Goebel USA
4 Takeshi Honda JPN
5 Alexander Abt RUS
6 Todd Eldredge USA
7 Michael Weiss USA
8 Elvis Stojko CAN
9 Chengjiang Li CHN
10 Anthony Liu AUS
11 Frederic Dambier FRA
12 Brian Joubert FRA
13 Kevin van der Perren BEL
14 Ivan Dinev BUL
15 Min Zhang CHN
16 Stepahne Lambiel SUI
17 Vakhtang Murvanidze GEO
18 Dmitri Dmitrenko UKR
19 Roman Skoniakov UZB
20 Yosuke Takeuchi JPN
21 Gheorghe Chiper ROM
22 Sergei Rylov AZE
23 Yunfei Li CHN
24 Sergei Davydov BLR


Alexei Yagudin capped his overwhelming victory with a free skate that earned four marks of 6.0 for presentation, record for a skater in singles and pairs.  At the end of a stunning performance he fell to his knees, waved a victory sign with each hand and then leaned over and kissed the ice.  Getting back up on his feet he leapt with delight as he left the ice.  It was a more subdued Evgeny Plushenko who pulled up to the silver medal and both skaters were as cold to each other as the skate center ice during the awards ceremony.

The first of the top five men to skate was Takeshi Honda who had an unexpectedly good chance of medaling after his second place finish in the short program.   As for much of his career, however, he could not put two good programs back to back and fell to forth place in the free skate to finish just out of the medals.  He landed five triple jumps, but stepped out of a quad toe loop and later in the program a triple loop.  He skated with decent speed and a nice presentation but the several quality problems in his jumps were fatal on a night when perfection was required to win a medal.

Next up was Evgeny Plushenko who needed to win the free skate to retain even the chance of winning the gold medal.  He opened by attempting a quad toe loop - triple toe loop - triple loop combination.  The first two jumps were successful but the triple loop was two footed and stepped out of.  He went on to complete a solo quad toe loop and four other triples, but doubled a planned triple Salchow.  He also made the error of repeating three triple or quad jumps when only two may be repeated, for a required deduction.  His marks were mostly 5.8s, good enough to win but also with plenty of room for Yagudin.  Ultimately they did not hold up and he ended up placed a unanimous second by the panel.

Timothy Goebel had the U.S.'s best shot at a medal in this event and he delivered, skating fourth in the last warmup.  Goebel landed three quadruple jumps (two Salchows and a toe loop) and five triple jumps.  On a sixth triple jump, a solo Axel, he stepped out of the landing.  Goebel's presentation has improved throughout the season and that was true even in the last month from U.S. Nationals to here.  His presentation marks could not rival the top two skaters, but on the strength of the first mark seven of the nine judges placed him third.

Following Goebel, Alexander Abt needed a clean skate if he was to move up into the medals.  On his opening combination, however, he fell on quad toe loop and two jumps later stepped out of a triple Lutz.  He landed a total of seven triple jumps, including triple Axel - triple toe loop.  But in this competition, no qaud meant no medal and he remained in fifth place.

TV could not have asked for a more dramatic start order to close the show.  Last to skate, Alexei Yagudin gave a magnificent performance landing two quad toe loops and six triple jumps.  His program included an opening quad toe loop - triple toe loop - double loop combination, which was his only combination.  On triple flip he had a reach on the landing but the jump was otherwise clean.

Todd Eldredge led off the third warmup with a well skated program with eight triple jumps.  His only error was a fall on an opening quad toe loop.   He received respectable marks in the mid-5s and pulled up to sixth place.

Elvis Stojko landed two quad toe loops in combination, the first as part of a quad toe loop - double toe loop combination and the second in quad toe loop - double toe loop - double loop.  On the latter combination he had a turn out of the loop.  Stojko has been working on quad Lutz but did not attempt the jump in the competition, throwing a triple Lutz instead.  He landed a total of two quad jumps and three triple jumps.  On a triple Axel - double toe loop combination he stepped out of the Axel and on triple loop he put a hand down.  He skated with decent speed and presentation but it was obvious it required all his effort to get through the program and on style and presentation men's skating has passed him by.  He fell one place in the standings to end up eighth.

Michael Weiss surprised all, and maybe even himself, by landing an opening quad toe loop - triple toe loop - double loop combination.  It looked like the double loop was a spontaneous decision after he landed the first two jumps with good speed out of the triple toe loop.  Following that, however, he ran into a few problems.  Triple Axel was completed with a reach for the ice and a triple loop was doubled.  On triple flip he stepped out of the landing.  He landed a total of one quad and five triples to move up one place to finish seventh.

Judges

Referee:   Sally-Anne Stapleford 

          J1:  Wendy Langston  (AUS)
          J2:  Merja Kosonen  (FIN)
          J3:  Janet Allen  (USA)
          J4:  Nicolae Bellu  (ROM)
          J5:  Yury Kliushnikov  (UKR)

Asst. Referee:  Junko Hiramatsu

          J6:  Volker Waldeck  (GER)
          J7:  Alexander Penchev  (BUL)
          J8:  Mieko Fujimori  (JPN)
          J9:  Evgenia Bogdanova  (AZE)

 

Ordinals

Short Program
Place Skater NOC J1 J2 J3 J4 J5 J6 J7 J8 J9 CP TP
1 Alexei Yagudin RUS 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 54 486
2 Takeshi Honda JPN 3 2 3 2 2 3 4 2 2 52 458
3 Timothy Goebel USA 2 5 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 50 450
4 Evgeny Plushenko RUS 5 3 5 5 3 4 5 5 3 48 428
5 Alexander Abt RUS 4 6 4 6 6 7 3 4 5 46 414
6 Chengjiang Li CHN 6 4 6 4 5 5 8 6 7 44 402
7 Elvis Stojko CAN 9 9 7 8 7 6 9 7 6 42 367
8 Michael Weiss USA 7 12 8 7 9 9 7 8 9 40 352
9 Todd Eldredge USA 10 8 9 9 8 10 11 12 8 38 334
10 Anthony Liu AUS 8 11 12 10 13 8 6 9 11 36 328
11 Frederic Dambier FRA 12 9 11 12 10 11 10 15 12 34 299
12 Ivan Dinev BUL 11 19 13 13 11 18 14 10 10 32 266
13 Kevin van der Perren BEL 13 7 10 11 15 12 15 14 13 30 284
14 Yunfei Li CHN 20 14 14 14 14 15 12 16 14 28 238
15 Sergei Davydov BLR 14 13 15 16 12 14 17 17 16 26 236
16 Stepahne Lambiel SUI 15 23 17 17 16 13 16 13 18 24 207
17 Brian Joubert FRA 18 15 16 19 17 17 18 11 15 22 212
18 Vakhtang Murvanidze GEO 26 18 19 15 21 19 20 19 20 20 150
19 Min Zhang CHN 21 21 23 22 18 20 13 20 17 18 154
20 Roman Skoniakov UZB 24 16 21 20 22 25 22 18 18 16 130
21 Dmitri Dmitrenko UKR 16 25 20 23 20 16 25 21 22 14 128
22 Sergei Rylov AZE 22 26 18 18 24 23 26 22 21 12 104
23 Gheorghe Chiper ROM 19 22 26 20 23 26 21 23 23 10 97
24 Yosuke Takeuchi JPN 23 17 24 27 25 22 19 24 24 8 94
25 Zoltan Toth HUN 17 20 27 26 26 21 23 25 26 6 81
26 Angelo Dolfini ITA 25 24 22 25 19 24 23 26 27 4 73
27 Margus Hernits EST 27 27 25 24 27 27 27 27 25 2 32
28 Kyu-Hyun Lee KOR 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 0 0

 

Free Skate
Place Skater NOC J1 J2 J3 J4 J5 J6 J7 J8 J9 CP TP
1 Alexei Yagudin RUS 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 46 414
2 Evgeny Plushenko RUS 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 44 396
3 Timothy Goebel USA 5 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 42 372
4 Takeshi Honda JPN 6 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 40 358
5 Alexander Abt RUS 3 11 5 7 8 6 5 5 6 38 320
6 Todd Eldredge USA 4 5 7 6 6 8 7 7 5 36 322
7 Michael Weiss USA 7 6 6 5 5 5 8 8 8 34 316
8 Elvis Stojko CAN 8 7 8 8 7 7 6 6 7 32 304
9 Chengjiang Li CHN 10 10 13 9 9 9 9 9 9 30 258
10 Anthony Liu AUS 11 8 9 16 12 10 11 14 11 28 227
11 Frederic Dambier FRA 12 12 12 11 11 11 15 10 12 26 220
12 Brian Joubert FRA 13 8 10 15 10 14 12 15 13 23 210
13 Kevin van der Perren BEL 9 14 11 12 13 12 14 13 13 23 209
14 Ivan Dinev BUL 16 15 15 10 14 17 10 11 10 20 196
15 Min Zhang CHN 17 13 14 14 18 16 13 12 15 18 168
16 Stepahne Lambiel SUI 14 16 16 13 19 13 16 17 17 16 150
17 Vakhtang Murvanidze GEO 18 17 18 19 15 18 18 16 16 14 122
18 Dmitri Dmitrenko UKR 15 18 17 18 17 15 21 19 19 12 114
19 Roman Skoniakov UZB 19 20 19 17 16 19 17 20 18 10 102
20 Yosuke Takeuchi JPN 20 19 20 21 21 20 19 21 20 8 70
21 Gheorghe Chiper ROM 22 21 21 20 20 22 20 18 21 6 62
22 Sergei Rylov AZE 24 24 22 22 24 23 22 23 22 4 20
23 Yunfei Li CHN 21 22 24 23 23 21 23 24 23 2 24
24 Sergei Davydov BLR 23 23 23 24 22 24 24 22 24 0 14

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