2010 Winter Olympics: Plushenko Ahead of Lysacek By 0.55 Points in Men's Skating

Yevgeny Plushenko has taken the lead for the men’s short program that took place last night in Vancouver.

Plushenko, the reigning gold medalist at the 2006 Olympics, earned a score of 90.85 after landing the highly-debated quadruple toe jump.

The 26 year old Russian seemed content before the Winter Olympics, and he did not have the zest and excitement that most athletes competing in the Olympic games possess.

“If I lose who cares because I already have all titles, nobody can take my titles away from me," Plushenko commented.

After saying this, Plushenko did add that he would love to be able to win back-to-back titles. No male skater has been able to do this since Dick Button did it at the 1948 and 1954 Olympics.

US skater Evan Lysacek is not far behind Plushenko with a score of 90.30. This Naperville native had a disastrous short program back at the Torino Winter Olympics, but since then, he has been working extremely hard to redeem himself and come out at these Vancouver games with a much stronger performance.

From what I saw last night, he did just that.

Lysacek, the reigning World Champion, has been suffering from pain in his left foot and this has limited the jumps he is able to do. The quadruple toe loop was not included in his short program routine, which is a component that many people feel is extremely important.

Even without this jump he was able to skate an outstanding performance which has kept him in the running for the gold.

Both of these skaters will have to come prepared mentally as well as physically for Thursday’s free skate at the Pacific Coliseum when they go head-to-head in hopes of winning the gold.