Johnny Weir

 The Men's final went from the ridiculous to the sublime, all in one warmup.  Skating last, Jeffrey Buttle decisively won the Free Skate to return to the Worlds podium for the first time since 2005.  The 2006 Olympic bronze medalist crushed the competition.

The warmup began, however, with Thomas Verner, the European champion, wiping up the ice in a dismal performance.  The high point of his performance was an opening quad toe loop on which he put his hand down -- the first of seven elements with errors.  In addition to the quad he landed two triple jumps.  He fell on an attempt at a second quad toe loop, was downgraded on a triple Axel, and popped three jumps to singles.  With all these errors, which completely disrupted the program, his PCS was still nearly 70 points; the third highest of the Free Skate.  One can only wonder what the panel was smoking during that performance.

Next up, Johnny Weir opened with a quad toe loop attempt.  The landing was two footed, and the jump downgraded.  This was the only element in the program with a major error. On triple loop he had to hold onto the landing for dear life, and had another poor landing edge on triple Lutz.  A solo triple flip had an edge call.

The program started slowly and did not start to look secure until after his second triple Axel at element 4.  The second half of the program, however, was skated confidently.  His component marks were in the mid sevens, giving him a PCS that was only fifth best.

Following his skate, Weir was the leader in the event, but his point total of 221.84 points did not look like it would be high enough to hold on for a medal.

Weir was followed by Daisuke Takahashi, who was third in the short, and one of the favorites for the gold.  Takahashi landed a high, clean opening quad toe loop that was scored with GoEs of ones and two.  He then proceeded to melt down and make major errors on three jump elements.  He also had a major brain seizure near the end of his program by improvising a triple Lutz - double toe loop combination which counted as a fourth combination/sequence.  That zeroed out the points for that elements and cost him the bronze medal.  He fell on his second quad toe loop attempt and had a near fall on one of two triple Axels.  Despite the technical errors he skated with speed, and managed to keep the overall flow of the program going.  He was scored third best in PCS, with component marks in the mid to upper sevens.  He ended up in fourth place, 1.73 points behind Weir.

Next to skate, Stephane Lambiel, the 2005 and 2006 World champion, also made a mess of his program.  Five jump elements were scored negative.  He missed two quad toe loop attempts, one of which was downgraded.  Triple Axel, loop and flip also had major errors.  This was another program where the errors disrupted the performance and yet the component marks remained in the mid to upper sevens.  Even with this help, he still placed seventh in the Free Skate and was out of the running for a medal.  With Weir still in first place at this point, he was assured of at least the bronze medal, and the U.S. escaped the humiliation of not winning a single medal at Worlds.

Lambiel was then followed by Brian Joubert.  Joubert correctly realized that if he skated clean the gold could be his.  But he also arrogantly dismissed the possibility that Jeffery Buttle could win without a quad.  So not only did he skate conservatively, he dumbed down his program to a dangerous extent.  He had three quads planned in the program but after landing the first one, he left out the next two.  On his second element he executed triple Salchow instead of a quad. He replace a second quad toe loop with a triple flip - triple toe loop combination, and his final combination, planned as triple Salchow - double toe loop - double loop, was executed as double Axel - single toe loop.  His program was well skated, with the highest PCS of the Free Skate, and component marks in the upper sevens and low eights.  Only two elements were scored negative, both due to triple flips which had edge calls.

Joubert was the leader in the overall score with only Buttle left to skate, and he surely must have thought the championship was his as he kissed the ice at the end of his performance.  But as it turned out, it wasn't

Buttle, who in recent years has developed the reputation of being a "short program" skater, did a masterful job in the Free Skate.  He skated a clean program with eight triple jumps, including two triple Axels and a triple flip - triple toe loop combination.  His GoEs where mainly ones and twos, picking up nearly 10 points over base value compared to Joubert, who earned not quite six points over base value, and a lower base value at that.  His TES was a phenomenal 84.29 points -- particularly considering it was done without a quad. In PCS he was scored second best, but by only 0.58 points behind Joubert.  His component marks were in the high sevens to low eights.

Following his victory Buttle was beaming the rest of the night.

Stephen Carriere moved up from eleventh in the Short Program to ninth in the Free Skate to place tenth overall.  Together with Weir's third place finish this was good enough for the U.S. to retain three spots for next year's World Championships.

Carriere had a generally decent skate with five clean triples, including two triple Axels.  But after element eight a good program started to south.  He fell on triple Lutz and put a hand down on triple Loop.  He then had a brain seizure of his own, adding a double toe loop to his closing triple Salchow, for a fourth combination which was zeroed out for points.  Canadian Patrick Chan had the identical brain seizure which cost him points for the identical element.  What part of "no more that three combinations or sequences" is not clear?

Jeremy Abbott, the last minute replacement for the injured Evan Lysacek, placed tenth in the Free Skate and eleventh overall.  Abbott opened with a fine, effortless looking quad toe loop, but five subsequent jump elements were scored negative.  He stepped out of one triple Axel and fell on another.  He also fell on his last jump element, a triple Salchow.  His component marks were in the mid to upper sixes.

Jeffrey Buttle

2008 Worlds Men's Medalists