Vancouver View - Russian Figure Skater Questions Judges; Britain Seeks First Medal

Plushenko Questions Quad Jumps Judging

(ATR) What's an Olympics without a figure skating controversy? The Russians were up in arms Thursday night when Evan Lysacek of the U.S. won the gold medal in men's singles without a quadruple jump.

Defending champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia, who landed the quad, was the runner-up and Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, who fell on his quad, was third.

"This is not men's figure skating, this is dancing," said Plushenko, who now has a gold and two silvers.

Under the current scoring system, Lysacek scored more points despite being the first champion since Alexei Urmanov in 1994 to not perform the difficult four-rotation jump.

"I was trying to get points every second that I could," said Lysacek, the first U.S. male skater to win the title since Brian Boitano in 1988. "If it was a jumping competition, they'd give you 10 seconds with no music to do your best jump. This is about 4 minutes and 40 seconds of skating and performing from start to finish."

Plushenko raised his arms when he finished, making the No. 1 sign with both hands. "I was positive that I won," he said later, then smiled. "I suppose Evan needs a medal more than I do. Maybe it's because I already have one."

Plushenko's coach, Alexei Mishin, said: "I think real champions should be able to execute quad jumps. This is the future, and in the future I'm sure rules will be changed, because it's not possible to move backwards."

Mishin believes the ISU will eventually raise the point total for the quad to reward skaters who can do it.

"This is women's skating, you should combine men and women," he said.

Lysacek's coach, Frank Carroll, shot back: "(Plushenko) said he was doing the jumps that Evan's doing when he was a junior. Well, Evan was doing the spins that he's doing when he was an intermediate. So it balances out."

Britain Seeks First Medal

Britain's Amy Williams broke the Whistlertrack record to lead the women's skeleton on Thursday and put her oncourse to end Team GB’s medal drought at the Vancouver Olympics.

Aftertwo heats, she is in position to win Britain’s first gold of the Games.The world silver medalist set a new track record of 53.83sec on the1,450-meter course at Whistler Sliding Centre.

Going into the finaltwo heats, Williams leads pre-race favorite Mellisa Hollingworth ofCanada, the Turin 2006 bronze medalist, by 0.39sec. Shelley Rudman, who won silver in Turin, the country’s only medal of the 2006 Games, is also in contention for a medal.

Inthe men’s skeleton, Canadian Jon Montgomery is one of the favorites towin gold after recording the fastest training times. Sliders fromGermany and Latvia will provide tough competition. Latvianbrother Martins Dukurs and Tomass Dukurs hope to capture the first goldmedalin their nation's history. Canada is the defending Olympicchampion in the men's skeleton. In Turin, Canadians Duff Gibson andJeff Pain took gold and silver.

Medal Milestone for Norway

Tora Berger will go down as Norway's 100th Winter Olympic gold medalist after her win in the 15km individual biathlon. She missed only one shot to beat off the challenge of second-placed Elena Khrustaleva of Kazakhstan and Darya Domracheva of Belarus.

"They were the happiest tears of my life," Berger said after breaking down at end of the race. "It was a good feeling and they were very happy tears."

Speedskating Title for Canada

Canadian world champion ChristineNesbitt pipped Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands by just 0.02secs tosnatch gold in the women's 1,000-meters speedskating. It was the hostnation’s third gold of the Games. Laurine van Riessen of theNetherlands was third. Nesbitt, who also captured her world crown at theRichmond Oval, bagged a silver in the Turin 2006 Olympics team pursuit.

Australia Hit Gold

Australia’s first gold of the Games came in thewomen's snowboard halfpipe, with Torah Bright putting in an impressiveperformance to win the title ahead of 2006 Olympic champion HannahTeter of the U.S.

Bright's gold was only Australia's second medal of the Games; Dale Begg-Smith won men's moguls silver in freestyle skiing. More than 3,500 spectators watched the event under the lights at Cypress Mountain.

Vonn Crashes Out

U.S. downhill Olympic champion Lindsey Vonnmissed out on her second gold of the Games when she wiped out in thewomen's super-combined slalom. Maria Riesch of Germany won gold, withAmerican Julia Mancuso taking silver and Anja Paerson of Sweden thebronze. Vonn has promised to do better when she goes in tomorrow’sSuper-G, her second strongest event.

Men's Super G Gets Underway

European skiers are seeking to continue their stranglehold on the men's Super-G that dates back to when the event was added the Olympic program in 1988.

Didier "the Butcher" Cuche of Switzerland is vying to become the oldest gold medalist the super-G at 35-years old. Last year, he became the oldest world champion in Super-G history. He won silver in Nagano and has appeared in three Olympics.

Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, last year's World Cup title holder, will look to challenge Cuche. Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis is a medal possibility after three World Cup wins in the past 12 months.

Medal Events Feb. 19

Four gold medals are on offer today: Men's Super G; Women’s 15 km Pursuit (7.5 Classic+7.5 Free); Women's Skeleton; and Men's Skeleton.

Medal Table

With 18 medals, the U.S. tops the table. Germany has 11 medals and Norway eight. Canada and France are tied with seven medals

Weather

Vancouver – Sunny, high 11c, low 3c

Whistler— Sunny, high 6c, low -3c

Cypress Mountain – Sunny, high 6c, low 0c

With reporting from Karen Rosen, Mark Bissonand Sam Steinberg

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