By the time Russia’s Alexei Yagudin took the ice Thursday night, the last of 24 skaters in the men’s free skate final, he was skating only against himself.
None of those before him had done a performance that could challenge even a less-than-brilliant Yagudin.
And, in the minds of the four judges who gave him four perfect 6.0s for presentation, Yagudin was brilliant.
He became the third straight Russian man to win the Olympic title, following Alexei Urmanov and Ilia Kulik.
Evgeny Plushenko of Russia got some help from the judges to move up from fourth after the short program to take second. Timothy Goebel of Rolling Meadows was third, the first Olympic medal for a U.S. man since Paul Wylie’s silver in 1992. Never before had Russian singles skaters been 1-2 in the Olympics.
Although the final 75 seconds of Yagudin’s 4-minute-30-second free skate did not include a jump, he was incontrovertibly the winner, sweeping the nine judges as he had in the short program.
In a decision almost as debatable as the one that has led to controversy in the pairs, Goebel made Olympic history by landing three quadruple jumps yet did not get better technical marks than Plushenko, who was far from the form that had made him world champion a year ago.
The Australian and Finnish judges put Goebel behind Japan’s Takeshi Honda, second after the short program but author of free skate without a quad.
Oleg Vasiliev, the 1984 Olympic pairs champion who now coaches in Chicago’s suburbs, wondered how Plushenko could have beaten Goebel.
“Tim had three quads and a solid program,” Vasiliev said. “Plushenko died in the middle of his program.”
The three U.S. entrants had talked about being able to challenge the Russians, who had won the last four world titles. It turned out only Goebel was up to the challenge.
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Six-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge came back from a horrific short program to finish 6th after 10th and fourth places in his two previous Olympic appearances. Two-time U.S. champion Michael Weiss was seventh. Both Eldredge and Weiss have said they are quitting Olympic-style competition after this season.
Three world titles and an Olympic gold medal in the past four years make Yagudin one of the greatest skaters in history, especially because they came in the era after the elimination of compulsory figures made it harder to prop up defending champions.
He was the second straight men’s Olympic champion who left a previous coach in Russia to work with Tatiana Tarasova, who had emigrated to the United States.
Tarasova, with a background in ice theater and ice dance, had developed pairs and dance champions but never coached a singles skater until Kulik left Moscow in 1996 to join her in Massachusetts. Two years later, her choreographic skills had helped turn him from a mere technician into an Olympic champion with the most accomplished technical program in Olympic history.
Yagudin, 21, left St. Petersburg and coach Alexei Mishin after winning the 1998 world title.
There was a poignant moment Thursday when the event’s oldest competitor, 30-year-old Eldredge, finished his free skate just as the next oldest, 29-year-old Elvis Stojko of Canada, was coming onto the ice for his. Stojko, who finished eighth, stopped to shake Eldredge’s hand and said, “Have a good skate,” as if to acknowledge the bond they shared after competing against each other in senior level competitions since 1990.
“Over the years, we respected each other tremendously,” Eldredge said. “He’s been through the ups and downs like me. It’s been 12 years together. There’s a lot there.”
Each had hoped for a last shot at Olympic glory that went out the window after serious mistakes in the short program, which left Eldredge in ninth and two-time silver medalist Stojko in seventh.
Although he fell on a quad 30 seconds into the free skate, Eldredge could be pleased with the four minutes that followed, during which he landed eight triple jumps, including two triple-triple combinations. That still left him far from the Olympic medal that will always remain missing from a resume with a world title and five other world medals.