Glorious and Surprising Finish for Lysacek at World Championships
by Sal Zanca, Special to U.S. Figure Skating Online |
| Evan Lysacek at the 2005 World Championships Photo by Michelle Wojdyla |
Event Results, News and Photos
(3/17/05) — The simplest way to say it is the best — Evan Lysacek, World bronze medalist.
At the beginning of the week, who would have thought it was possible? After all, the field started out with three-time World champion Evgeny Plushenko, reigning World silver medalist Brian Joubert, two-time World silver medalist Timothy Goebel, and two-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir, who racked up two golds on the Grand Prix circuit this season. Even Lysacek himself talked about how the event was a big learning experience for him after he finished third in the qualifying round.
But his consistent skating, the new judging system, and some key injuries helped pave the way for Lysacek's unexpected bronze medal. His mates on the podium above him, new champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland and silver medalist Jeff Buttle of Canada, were also surprises.
The three of them had a combined zero World medals entering the competition, including Lysacek, who was making his first-ever appearance in the World Championships.
“I am a little bit shocked,” Lysacek said. “It wasn't my best skate but I guess it was enough.”
He pointed out that the new system fairly scores what the skaters do in their performance, rather than judging on previous performances.
“The thing is you don't need to necessarily skate a perfect program to have the results come out in the order they should,” Lysacek said. “Now it is a lot more reflective of who the best skaters actually are and not who the names are because, obviously, coming into to this no one would have expected these guys would get on the podium.
“The system is really good,” he continued. “It is pushing skaters to try for more difficulty, especially in the second half of the program.”
Lysacek started strong and didn't fall, but he had some bobbles along the way on his landings. He did three different combinations which offset the lack of a quad in his light-hearted program to “Singin' in the Rain.”
“I made some little mistakes,” said Lysacek, who twice lost the World Junior title to skaters he ended up beating at this event — Weir and Russian Andrei Griazev. “I felt fine. It was just little fluky kinds of things.”
Now Lysacek is psyched.
“It is really motivating to go home and train for next season, the Olympic year,” he said. “It gives me a lot more esteem."
He'll also be psyched when he remembers that the bronze medal earns him an extra $15,000 from U.S. Figure Skating — part of a new program that rewards skaters for their placements in certain competitions.
Lysacek benefited from the withdrawal of Plushenko, who was finally overwhelmed by injury and chose not to compete. That moved Lysacek up to fourth entering the free skate. Plushenko's withdrawal left Griazev and Sergei Dobrin as the two Russians in the event. They finished 11th and 17th, just making the 28 placement limit for Russia to send two men's skaters to next year's Olympic Winter Games.
Lysacek skated last in the event and knocked Weir out of the bronze medal position.
For Weir, a fourth-place finish was unthinkable on Monday when he was close to withdrawing due to a foot injury. But he chose to stay in the competition and fight through the pain, and the reward was fourth place — one place higher than 2004.
His foot “is black and blue and very tired and shaking,” Weir said. “You could see I started to get very tired on the step sequence at the end. I fell on the circular steps (and) the jumps weren't all that sure. It is quite obvious I am not feeling my best right now in the foot.”
The fatigue did show. The circular stepwork that was supposed to end in a double Axel instead ended in a slip. A late combination became a two-footed double flip.
“More than anything I am just proud of myself that I got through all three phases of the competition,” he said. “I didn't totally embarrass myself. I think now I am finally a true champion. Skating is very hard for me right now. Going into the competition knowing I am not perfect is very difficult for me. I did the best I could and that is all I ask for right now.”
Lambiel won the first World title for a Swiss man since Hans Gerschwiler in 1947. He landed two quads which scored high in the new scoring system, offsetting two jumps that he scaled down to singles in his program to music from “King Arthur.”
His free skate is completely different from the one he performed at the European Championships in January.
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| Stephane Lambiel at the 2005 World Championships Photo by Michele Wojdyla |
Brian Joubert of France had a chance for gold, but he dropped to sixth after falling twice.
“My legs felt rather good but my head wasn't quite there,” Joubert said.
Canada's Jeff Buttle also fell twice en route to the silver medal, the first for a Canadian man since Elvis Stojko won silver in 2000.
For the third American, Timothy Goebel pulled up from 14th after the short program to finish 10th overall. The U.S. was the only country to have three skaters in the top 10. Canada had two (Emanuel Sandhu was seventh), as did France (Frederic Dambier was ninth).
Goebel was skating very early due to his 14th place after the short program, and he had another rough night. He fell on a triple Axel and quad toe that was supposed to be his combination — he did not land a quad in five attempts this week.
“I have been hitting those quads in practice,” Goebel said. “I felt really good coming in here. It has been a rough year. My goal for the most part was just getting back to Worlds, but considering the progress I made between here and nationals I expected to perform much better.”
He vowed to be back.
“I am really disappointed and I want to come back next year to get back to where I've been.”
