Photo Credit: Dustin Gaffke. No edits made. License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/[/caption]Figure skaters did not have a smooth day at Sochi on Thursday, February 13. The men performed the short skate and it was not short in drama. Two big names, Evgeni Plushenko of Russia and Jeremy Abbott of the United States, both had less than a stellar day. For the first hour of skating no one even had a completely clean skate.
After a dreary first round of skaters it was time for Plushenko and Abbott to skate, both who were expected to do very well. Plushenko, Russia’s only male skater and four-time Olympic medalist, hurt his back while practicing and was forced to withdraw. NBC announcers stated that his back had started hurting him the day before. The crowd was devastated by his withdraw. In the team skate he had performed exceptionally well earning a 91.39 in the short skate and 168.2 in the free skate helping Russia earn the gold in the team figure skating event.
Abbott was skating within the same group as Plushenko and he is one of America’s favorites. As soon as he went for his first quad toe loop he faced a devastating fall and laid on the ground barely moving for a few seconds. He miraculously got up to skate a fantastic free skate. The fall, however, crushed his score which he received a 72.58 and ended up 15th.
Both Plushenko, 31, and Abbott, 28, are planning to retire after these Olympics. "I think it's God saying, 'Evgeni, enough, enough with skating.’ Age, it's OK. But I have 12 surgeries. I'd like to be healthy,” he said to an AP reporter after withdrawing.
Jason Brown, 19, won a surprise spot to the Olympics after an exhilarating performance during the United States Figure Skating Championships. He was the first to skate a truly clean program during the short skate. He scored 86 points without even doing a quad jump which put him in fifth place and medal contention. His performances are known for their personality and flair.
The two male figure skaters that skated flawlessly were Patrick Chan of Canada and Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan. Hanyu is in first earning 101.45 points which is a world record for the highest score ever recorded in a short skate. Chan is in second with 97.52 points.
The men’s free skate will be on tomorrow which will also be a medal event.
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