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Plushenko's Bitter Rant Disappoints Lysacek

Plushenko performing during the men's free skating figure skating competition at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Thursday, Feb. 18. David Gray

VANCOUVER — Olympic figure skating champion Evan Lysacek has hit out at Yevgeny Plushenko for discrediting his rivals and tainting the American's gold medal moment with a bitter rant.

Silver medalist Plushenko said the American was "not a true champion" because he had won without performing a difficult quadruple jump, which requires great height and pace to make at least four midair rotations. The Russian did two in Vancouver.

Even Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has weighed in on the subject.

"I would like to sincerely congratulate you with the wonderful Olympic performance. Your silver is worth gold," Putin told Plushenko in a telegram. "You were able to overcome all the obstacles in your brave comeback and performed the most accomplished program on the Vancouver ice."

Lysacek, who said he had not yet been to sleep or taken off his medal, voiced disappointment about the debacle, which has raised questions about the fairness of the new judging system, in which skaters are given marks out of 10 rather than the previous six.

"I guess I was a little disappointed that someone who was my role model would take a hit at me in probably one of the most special moments of my life that I'll never forget, regardless of what anyone said there," Lysacek told a news conference Friday. "For him to discredit the field is not right. It's probably the strongest field there has ever been."

While Plushenko, the 2006 champion who also won silver in 2002, avoided publicly congratulating his rival after Thursday's free skate, Lysacek said they had shaken hands and that the Russian had spoken to him in private.

The debate over the quad jump has split the skaters at these games, with many like bronze medalist Daisuke Takahashi agreeing with Plushenko that it was a vital part of the sport.

Owing to the sport’s very subjective nature, athletes have often said it is hard to know what judges are actually looking for, but Thursday's result suggested that it might be an all-around performance rather than one show-stopping moment. Whereas before, one performance was marked subjectively against another, nowadays there is a checklist for the value of every jump, spin, transition as well as a grade of execution mark that reflects how well each element was performed.

"With the old system, I would have won," Plushenko told reporters. "The new system is a little different. The quad is not valued anymore.

"Apparently, this is what figure skating needs today. I thought it was enough, and it should have been enough to win."

Lysacek said he had no plans to retire, although he has not decided whether he will defend his world title next month, but he joked that he might not be the most welcome competitor when Russia hosts the next winter Games in Sochi in 2014.

"I don't think they would love to see me there to be honest, if I could somehow get a visa into that country," he said, smiling.

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