Plushenko platinum: Yevgeny Plushenko website stirs the pot

Yevgeny Plushenko can be so 6.0.

OK, so the allegation that the Yevgeny Plushenko website claimed his silver medal in men’s figure skating was "Plushenko platinum" appears to be yesterday’s news. The offending image, at least, is no longer there.

But Plushenko seems not to have realized that he’s really just dating himself. Stirring a judging controversy? That went out with fur-wearing French figure-skating judges.

The new scoring system might require a degree in higher mathematics, but most people think it’s fair. In this case, “the numbers don’t lie” is true.

The fact is, Plushenko has been trying to bully himself into a figure skating gold since before the final, suggesting that men who did not try a quad jump should compete in the women’s program.

What he has failed to acknowledge is that, if his footwork and spins had been remotely as good as gold medalist Evan Lysacek’s, he would probably have won easily.

Any assertion that one successful quad in a 4-1/2 minute program should give him the immutable right to claim gold shows how out of touch he is with figure skating’s new scoring era.

Yes, he performed one jump better than Lysacek, but Lysacek did just about everything else better.

The Yevgeni Plushenko website suggests: “This Olympic silver is a real victory for the champion who's done the impossible – he is back proving he IS the best!”

And then it goes on to say that a poll on evgeni-plushenko.com shows irrefutably that figure skating fans are outraged by Lysacek’s gold.

No, Yevgeny. Figure skating controversies are so passé.

Now, Lysacek’s costume? You might win that fight.

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Mark comments on all things figure skating on his Twitter feed, as well as Facebook.