Olympics story by Georgina Scane, Fri, 17 Feb 2006 21:48:00 GMT


TURIN, Italy - Evgeni Plushenko of Russia clinched the men's figure skating gold medal in style as clocked 167.67 points in the free skate to take his overall score to 258.33. This score was an astonishing 27.12 points more than what the silver medallist Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland was able to garner. Canada's Jeff Buttle came in the third spot.

Plushenko skated in perfect rhythm to the music of "The Godfather" and as one reviewer aptly pointed out was the "man among the boys" at the event. The 23-year-old Russian was not quite vintage, but as he said later it was more than enough, "It was my dream when I was four years old. I'm so happy with my scores. I did my job, it's not the best but it was quite enough. I didn't have a lot of emotion. My fans know how emotional I can be," he admitted.

The big disappointment in the event was American Johnny Weir who came in fifth. Weir buckled under pressure as a carnival atmosphere in Turin was too much for him to take in, "I never felt comfortable in this building. I didn't feel my inner peace, I didn't feel my aura. Inside I was black," the 21-year-old said afterwards.

He admitted that the atmosphere and the field terrified him, "It was awesome, it was crazy. I've never been in that atmosphere before. It was like a hockey game or a pro football game," he commented. But the fact remains that he faltered and badly at that.

Weir was candid enough to acknowledge that and said that he must not allow external pressures to affect him, "Years. There are years between Plushenko and everybody else. It's really quite a distance as far as experience and maturity as far as skating," Weir admitted.

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