Men

Starting Order - Short Program

Short Program

Notes:

The men's short program was a quad-fest, with three skaters getting credit for quads.  As expected Alexei Yagudin won the short program and landed one of the three quads.  Yagudin skated to the Emerson, Lake, and Palmer version of music from the Nutcracker.  He was dressed in a green costume with a surreal mixture of keyboard and musical instrument designs.  Due the altitude his skate was a struggle at times and at the end he was given oxygen.  After landing the quad toe loop, he reached on triple Axel - double toe loop and then went into a slow-motion death drop.  Despite the inconsistent skating, he got through it without major errors.

Michael Weiss tried the quad toe loop but stepped out of the landing.   He then landed triple Axel - triple toe loop.  Overall it was as strong skate to music from "On the Waterfront".  His costume consisted of a brown and black plaid pullover with a black t-shirt and black jeans.  I guess he was supposed to be a longshoreman but he looked more like a yuppie lumberjack to me.

Timothy Goebel landed a quad Salchow and triple Axel - double toe loop.   It was a technically solid, clean performance with a respectable presentation

Elvis Stojko placed fourth in the short program courtesy of two errors.   On his opening combination he put a hand down on triple Axel and then followed up with the double toe loop.  The combination spin executed the change on two feet; and though not an error, he tripled his quad attempt which also hurt in a group as strong as this one.  Overall the program was skated slowly except for a diagonal step sequence which was hot.

Matthew Savoie did a decent job in a program of somewhat lesser difficulty than the top guns.  The program had some nice artistic aspects, though inconsistently.  He did not attempt a quad or triple Axel, landing instead triple flip - triple toe loop and a solo triple Lutz.

The third quad of the short program was landed by Anthony Liu.  He landed triple Lutz - triple toe loop for his combination, but fell on the entry into his closing combination spin.

Starting Order - Free Skating

Final Results

Notes:

Alexei Yagudin held of the new king of the quad, Timothy Goebel, to win the men's event.  Yagudin popped his quad toe loop attempt and stepped out of triple Salchow but landed seven triples including triple Axel - triple toe loop.  His only other error was a stumble in a circular footwork sequence.  The program was skated in slow motion with the presentation dragging between the jumps.  Due to the altitude or lack of training, or both, Yagudin put all his energy into the jumps and conserved his strength on everything else.  In this strategy he was not alone.  Goebel and Elvis Stojko took the same route turning the men's event into more of a jumping contents than normal.

Goebel launched himself into second place with three quad jumps, the first skater to accomplish that in competition.  He fell on his opening triple flip but then bore down to complete the jumps.  In between the presentation was tedious, a weakness he would not be able to get away with under other circumstances.  Here, however, with all the men making little effort in the second mark he could get away with it.  He stepped out of tripe Axel and then landed triple toe loop.  He followed with quad toe loop - triple toe loop, quad toe loop, and quad Salchow in rapid succession.  He followed up with three more triple in the final third of the program.  In the press conference following the event, when Goebel was asked about the three quads Yagudin turned to Stojko and asked, "he landed three quads?".  Stojko replied while slowly shaking his head, "yes"; to which Yagudin responded, "JESUS".   Later, when Goebel was asked about his next competition which will not be skate Canada (where Yagudin and Stojko compete next) Yagudin turned to Stojko and said, "good, we are safe!"

Stojko moved up to the silver medal by landing six triples and a quad toe loop, the latter in combination with a double toe loop.  Like Yagudin, in between there was very little.  He landed two triple Axels, though the second required a miracle save to keep from falling.  The spins and footwork were slow and simple except for one fast footwork sequence at the end.

Michael Weiss dropped to fourth, falling on quad toe loop and triple Axel.  He stepped out of triple loop and on a closing triple toe loop he landed on two feet forward.   He landed three solo triple jumps; Axel, Salchow, and Lutz.  Skating to "Carmen" he had decent connecting moves and expression, but there was a major distraction for most of the routine when he split his pants in the posterior on the opening fall.  For most of the program I think most people were wondering would he make it to the end of the program before his costume exploded.  Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view), he did.

Matthew Savoie did a decent job and held on to fifth place.  He landed four triples, including one triple Axel.  His expression was inconsistent, however, with too much simple stoking and with the first half of the program slow.

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