The ISU has officially declared Evgeny Plushenko ineligible for ISU Competition based on non-sanctioned exhibitions he participated in. While the Russian Federation does have 21 days to appeal this, it is important to remember that Plushenko just came out of retirement for Vancouver, didn't get what he wanted, and was unlikely to ever compete again.
Plushenko is listed for a Grand Prix assignment, but so are several other skaters who won't be making their trips. It is important to note that Plushenko's knee is ailing again and that this is mostly inconsequential. There used to be a greater distinction between professional events and amateur events, but unless Yu-Na Kim's agency is able to create a swarm of new events, professional skating is not a threat to the ISU. Should this bruise Evgeny's ego, it could give pro skating an added jolt.
While he was never expected to compete again, it is nice to have a guarantee. Skating Darth Vader is ineligible. While the Russian Federation would likely be able to pull some string going into Sochi, an ancient Plushenko would never return 'for the joy of participation' with a free skate to Where Have All The Flowers Gone.
Decision # 5 - Decision of the ISU Council on Eligibility of Mr. Evgeny Plushenko (RUS)
Based on evidence presented the Council has concluded that Mr. Evgeny Plushenko breached the ISU eligibility rule 102, paragraph 2, i) of the ISU General Regulations and as a consequence has become ineligible under paragraph 7 a) of that rule. The evidence has proved to the satisfaction of the Council that Mr. E. Plushenko, a skater and member of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR), skated in exhibitions held in March and April 2010, in Russia and other countries, without the express prior authorization of the FSFR. Such activity is a breach of the ISU eligibility rules and results in the loss of eligibility.
The present decision communicated to both Mr E. Plushenko and the FSFR may be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland, within 21 days upon receipt of the decision, in accordance with Article 25, paragraph 2, c) of the ISU Constitution.
Do you have any information on the behind-the-scenes of this? How much of this was Cinquanta's doing, vs Piseev's or Plushenko/Mishin's?
ReplyDeletelove the Witt reference
ReplyDeletePlu is a sore loser. Good riddance is right:-)
ReplyDeleteBest skater ever!! Very sad!
ReplyDeleteGood riddance? Way to kick someone when he's down. What did Plushenko ever do to you?
ReplyDeleteAlso, he is not a sore loser, he was just voicing his opinion, which takes a lot of courage.
So glad I won't have to see judges gift him scores anymore.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to Plushenko I have stopped trying to understand why most bloggers hate him so much. Basically I think it must be that they think that Plushenko's marks on artistry are bought by the Russian federation and that they are only successful because of corrupt judges.
ReplyDeleteI just saw that post before mine and fits my theory. Most people think he deserves zeroes for choreography and performance or transitions or whatever!! Under 6.0 maybe he deserved 0.0 for Presentation. I would like to read the explanation why he was never deserving of any wins.
ReplyDeleteThere's a difference between "voicing his opinion" and impugning the masculinity of the guy who beat you in the media.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'll be sorry to see him go. It seemed like he really enjoys competing.
Large portions of the skating world hate him for several reasons.
ReplyDelete-He has a massive ego.
-Russia and its supporters have been pushing him for years over better 'package skaters' simply because he's a strong Russian male.
-His choreography is largely uninspired, and most of his programs use very similar movements and transitions.
-He has been known to impugn his competitors in the past, most notably Alexei Yagudin. Personal life aside, Yagudin is universally regarded as one of the best all-around Men's skaters in history. Plushenko hated him for that.
-His quads in Vancouver weren't even *good* quads. Most of his jump landings were ugly and were barely saved at all. It's a testament to his strength and ability that he was able to land them, but they were not good jumps, and they should not be rewarded for being good jumps.
I've never understood why anyone liked Plushenko's skating. I know, I know - different strokes for different folks, but still... Besides being able to land a consistent quad toe, what did he do to advance the sport? Nothing. His spins were among the weakest of any elite man. His programs and choreography were trite. His skating was very up-and-down, back-and-forth — very little edge work or moves in the field that showed any sort of mastery or control. I would say he's like the Surya Bonaly of men's skating except that he's not nearly as exotic or intriguing or fun to watch. You take his quad and what's left? Nothing worth watching.
ReplyDeletePlushenko's camel spin was amazing to me! Both his legs were SO straight! I couldn't wait to see his camel spin! I loved the way he would go into a quad! I know his arm movements were apart of preparing for the quad jump but I liked seeing them by itself? Is that weird? His feet were so fast during his step sequences. I mean insanely fast! How did he not trip over his own feet? I don't know if that is considered good or bad or nothing but I loved it. He skated for the crowd! Not for classical music loving judges all the time! He tried to make connections with the audience. I liked seeing him to triple axels. So expert and great most of the time. There was so much I liked about his skating. Other skaters can do the same exact move and it would cause no reaction in me but when he did it struck me like lightening!! Totally unexplainable!
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 12:59 a.m. - Thanks for that. I asked why anyone liked him, and you answered. I might still disagree, but at least now I understand where you're coming from. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite amusing to see how North American media distorts Plushenko's words and tries to villainize him. He never said that figure skating was a jumping contest. What he meant was that a champion must be a complete skater with both excellent athleticism and artistry. He wasn't upset because he didn't win. He was because Lysacek, who wasn't even try to become a complete skater, got the Gold. If Takahashi had completed the quad toe or two-footed landed a quad flip like he did in the Worlds, Plushenko would have admitted his defeat with grace. In his recent interview to Russian media (after the Worlds), he said that the strongest skater in the world was neither him nor Lysacek, but it was Takahashi. He said that Tahakashi represented the skating of the future. For him, crowning Lysacek as a champion is a threat to the future of the sport.
ReplyDeleteI'm very skeptical that Plushenko would have reacted any better if Takahashi had one at the Olympics. He just would have found a different reason to complain.
ReplyDeletePlushenko's landings in the Olympics were clunky, even to the untrained eye. He brute-forced his way through his jumps; his skating was painful to watch for me. I am glad he gave props to Takahashi, sounds like he is being a reasonable person!
ReplyDeleteYes you are very skeptical, if someone proved that Plushenko was not a nasty guy, you just find a different reason to complain…
ReplyDeleteThe guy awarded himself a platinum medal. Such sportsmanship!
ReplyDeleteWhether his silver medal was unjust or not is not the point! Just imagine if this declaration ware made to one of your favorite skaters, or just remember what happened to Joannie Rochette when she skated for Thin Ice. Don’t you think that ISU is acting in kind a high-handed ways?
ReplyDeleteWhether his silver medal was unjust or not is not the point! Just imagine if this declaration ware made to one of your favorite skaters, or just remember what happened to Joannie Rochette when she skated for Thin Ice. Don’t you think that ISU is acting in kind a high-handed ways?
ReplyDeleteThere are rules for eligibility that every skater knows and Evgeny broke them. Every other skater who wishes to keep their eligibility walks a fine line and is sure to get the necessary clearances. Evgeny was never going to compete again. It is a moot point. His knee injury is a problem and he is done.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 9:32PM - Oh, come on. Plushenko's scores are always inflated. Let's look at Vancouver: his PCS were the same as Lysacek's. I can't stand Lysacek, but there is NO WAY Plushenko & Lysacek should have the same PCS. Plushenko got GoE marks he didn't deserve, transition marks he didn't deserve, his programs are front-loaded and he is STILL always close to people who are smarter about the IJS... and just in terms of simple aesthetics, his programs were incomparable to the others'. They were difficult to watch, especially his LP.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't just Vancouver. His Europeans scores were inflated, even his Torino scores were way too high (not saying he didn't deserve to win). I have never personally understood the appeal of Plushenko. I think his outspokenness about the quad is admirable, but I think he purports the myth that doing a quad automatically makes you a superior skater to everyone else. Yes, skaters should work on the quad and it's important for the future of the sport that people do quads, but, like, there are other things to skating. I'd rather see a complex program without a quad than a simple one with.
Anyway, er, kind of a digression. I doubt the ban will last for long, though. I know AJ says that he won't skate competitively again and I agree, but if he does decide he wants to, I'm sure he will.
I was anony at 9:32 PM and this to anony at 7:27 June 30---Even if Plushenko got transition marks he didn't deserve I would say his performance/ execution score was exactly right! His skating skills score was right! Even his interpretation I feel was on the money! I didn't feel that Lysacek was anywhere near Plushenko in performance/execution! Lysacek has no performance. He is too busy for performance to me! Lysacek and interpretation? I mean these are all opinion scores anyway! There is 9 level transition score or 8 or 7 or 6. It's all opinion.
ReplyDeleteI don't care about frontloading as a negative view of a performance. Plushenko frontlaoded with a quad triple and two triple axels. That is more impressive to me than a program with backloaded triples or the awful three jump combination with two double jumps or the even worse double axel, double toe, double loop. That jump combo is horrendous and I have no respect for it all. But of course it racks up the poins after the halfway point where every jump is worth more. I would rather see a bad quad than that.
Plushenko's LP in Vancouver is not difficult for me to watch. I mean it is with the sound on because of Hamilton Bezic Hammond bashing him every second of it! But I am glad for Euros and the Cup of Russia when Plushenko was not the horrible enemy of good skating as presented by Hamilton, Bezic, Hammond. I explained before what I like about his skating and of course that still stands.
I've always liked watching Plushenko, but to be honest, his performance in Vancouver seemed overscored to me. It seemed very wobbly, and he looked tired. And he just kind of petered out at the end.
ReplyDeleteIf Plushenko had performed like he's done in the past, I might have agreed that he should have won, but not in Vancouver. I didn't think he and Lysacek should have been even as close as they were. And his attitude afterward was just appalling.
It's a shame that his great performances in the past are overshadowed by this most recent lackluster one. I was hoping he'd be able to redeem himself in future competitions. I guess that's out now though.
It seemed like he thought they'd hand him the gold medal just for showing up at Vancouver. In his LP, it didn't even look like he was *trying* - his jump quality was terrible, all tilted in the air and sloppy, and it's a miracle he even managed to hold on to a couple of his landings. Combine the bad jumps with the simple transitions, sloppy spins and footwork, and (lack of) artistry and he frankly didn't even deserve to be on the podium. He should have been fourth behind Takahashi, Lysacek, and Weir, all of whom skated better that day. If this is what we have to look forward to from Plushy should he continue competing, it is definitely good riddance!
ReplyDeleteBut Actually Joannie’s eligibility was threatened by ISU, though she did nothing wrong. So it can happen to any skater. It’s kind of a tyranny.
ReplyDeleteBut Actually Joannie’s eligibility was threatened by ISU, though she did nothing wrong. So it can happen to any skater. It’s kind of a tyranny.
ReplyDelete"Hate on himm all you want but the guy 1. still has a huge fanbase" - If he has such a "huge" just like his huge nose, where the hell are they? All I counted here is two uneducated airheads that don't know their asses from their elbows. That's not exactly a huge anything, so I guess that his fanbase now matches what's between his legs, a whole lot of nothing. News for ya: outside of Russia, he ain't got NO fanbase. For someone with such a LEGION of fans, what happened to his fanlisting? Nobody joined, no surprise there math-whiz.
ReplyDelete"stays in the history of FS as on of the greatest." - And you stay in the history of being one in three Puss fans that use the same BS excuses to justify EVERYTHING that your arrogant favorite does. The lack of intellect his "fans" have (all 3 of you) might explain to you why he doesn't actually have many, not everyone is as stupid and tasteless as you losers.