VANCOUVER, British Columbia — For the sake of drama, if nothing else, it's appropriate that Evgeni Plushenko will be the last man on the ice at the men's figure skating long program tonight.
Plushenko not only leads by a fraction of a point over Evan Lysacek of the United States and Daisuke Takahashi entering the free skate, he is the defending Olympic gold medalist and the standard by which skaters like Lysacek measure themselves.
“What he has is one major advantage over everybody, and that is an Olympic gold medal,” Lysacek said. “He has power mentally because he has what we all want.
“I think it's going to take some mighty fine skating to get that power away from him.”
Lysacek, who will be first to skate in the final group of six that wraps up with Takahashi, Johnny Weir of the United States and Lysacek, in that order, displayed his capacity for mighty fine skating Tuesday night.
He trailed Plushenko in skating segment points — the Russian rang up 31 points alone in jumps, including a quad toe loop-triple toe loop opener — but had the edge in performance, choreography, skating skills and transitions. His 90.3 points trailed only Plushenko's 90.85 and edged Takahashi at 90.25.
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