Portrait of an artist: Yagudin wins gold in men's figure skating

By NANCY ARMOUR
AP Sports Writer
February 15, 2002

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Alexei Yagudin dropped to his knees and bent forward to kiss the ice.

He slapped the surface and rose to his feet, lifting his arms. As the crowd cheered, he jumped high, looking as if he were going to sprint off the ice to get his gold medal. By the time he reached his coach and the ``Kiss and Cry'' area, the tears were falling.

When his marks flashed, Yagudin could no longer contain himself, bawling uncontrollably as coach Tatiana Tarasova hugged him.

``I can't realize yet I've got the gold medal right here,'' he said later, lifting up his medal. ``It was like some good dream up there, so I can't just really express myself.''

He already said everything he needed with his skates.

With his swashbuckling routine to ``Man in the Iron Mask,'' Yagudin won his duel with fellow Russian Evgeni Plushenko and silenced his former coach and harshest critic, Alexei Mishin.

His performance was one of the best the Olympics have ever seen, earning four perfect 6.0s for artistry. No other man had ever had more than one perfect mark at the Olympics.

With figure skating badly needing a respite from the judging controversy that has exposed the sport's ugliest side, Yagudin gave it beauty and a champion worth celebrating.

``I don't really care what happened in the pairs event. That's not my business,'' he said. ``I just know that I skated my best and I know I really deserve what I'm wearing around my neck.''

Plushenko won the silver, and Timothy Goebel finished third, the first time since 1992 an American man won a medal in the event.

Goebel also made Olympic history, becoming the first man to land three quadruple jumps in one program. The ``Quad King'' also was the first man to land a four-revolution salchow in the Olympics.

``I'm just so excited to be sitting up here with a medal around my neck,'' Goebel said. ``It's great we've got an American man back on the podium. We've got so many great skaters and we sent such a strong team.

``Any of the three of us could have medaled, and I'm really happy it's me.''

Americans Todd Eldredge and Michael Weiss finished sixth and seventh.

Yagudin began dreaming of this night four years ago, when he finished fifth at the Nagano Olympics despite the flu. He's won three world championships since but also gone through periods of self-doubt and despair.

On this night, though, all of that was forgotten.

``It was pretty hard work for me,'' he said. ``But I just went and showed everyone who (is) Alexei Yagudin.''

Skating last, his program was poetry in motion. His presentation was exquisite; when he pantomimed a hanging, you could almost see the rope around his neck.

And his footwork was simply electric as he danced across the ice in an intense swordfight. His arm movements were so vivid you almost expected to see bodies littering his path.

He nailed everything, too, including two quads -- one as part of a three-jump combination.

Unlike the pairs, where judging has sparked figure skating's latest scandal, there was no question Yagudin was the winner. He joined 1994 Olympic gold medalist Alexei Urmanov and '98 winner Ilia Kulik as Russian champions; the 1992 gold medalist, Victor Petrenko of Ukraine, trained in the same system that has produced the current men's dynasty.

``I did my personal best, but Alexei gave a splendid performance,'' Plushenko said. ``If after the short program I was in second place, then I would have room to fight for the gold medal.''

What a fight that would have been. In fourth place after botching his short program, Plushenko gave a hot-blooded interpretation of ``Carmen.''

His program started off strong, with two quads and a very rare and difficult triple axel-half loop-triple flip combination in the first two minutes. But his energy was gone by the end of program, and he turned a triple salchow into a double.

``I don't think it would have any effect on the outcome of results,'' Plushenko said.

With his proficiency at the quads, no one questions Goebel's athletic ability. His artistry has always been a more troubling matter.

Not on Thursday.

Goebel looked positively whimsical in his routine to ``An American in Paris.'' Take that, Gene Kelly. During his footwork, he toyed with the crowd, shrugging and grinning. With 15 seconds remaining in his routine, the crowd was standing.

And to chants of ``U-S-A, ``U-S-A,'' Goebel's marks gave him the bronze. He's the first American medalist since Paul Wylie won silver at the Albertville Games.

``I knew I had the potential to be up here,'' Goebel said. ``To actually make it a reality is a whole other thing.''