ALEXEI YAGUDIN: A gold with no questions asked
Olympic figure skating desperately needed a clean win last week, and Russia’s Alexei Yagudin brilliantly provided it. The three-time world champion, who has skated in the shadows of his younger compatriot Evegeny Plushenko, 19, for the past year, now stands behind no man. On Thursday night his swashbuckling “The Man in the Iron Mask” routine earned the best scores of any singles skater in Olympic history, including four perfect 6.0s for artistry. The gold medal was doubly satisfying since it came at the expense of Plushenko, who finished second after falling on his first jump in the competition. The two are bitter rivals who once shared a coach in St. Petersburg. But Yagudin, 21, bolted to Connecticut to train. “I was really fortunate that I had such a nice coach, Tatiana [Tarasova], who really changed me,” he said. “I became not just a jumper, but an artist on the ice.”
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