Evgeni Plushenko

Evgeni Plushenko (born 3 November 1982) is a figure skater from Russia. He was born and raised in the Soviet Union. He is the last of the "Soviet System" figure skaters, which took children from their parents at a young age and raised them in a training system away from home while giving them everything they needed, including housing and food and equipment, so they could become the best.

Early years

Plushenko was a very good skater as a child. At age 14, he won the World Junior Championships. At age 15, he won the bronze medal at the World Championships. He has always been coached by Alexei Mishin, a very famous Soviet and Russian skater coach. At the time of Plushenko's rise, Mishin was also coaching Alexei Yagudin. When Yagudin saw all the attention Mishin was giving Plushenko, it made Yagudin leave and find another coach. Plushenko and Yagudin had a very big rivalry that ended in 2002, when Yagudin won the Olympic Gold and Plushenko won the silver.

Career

Between the 2002 Olympics and the 2006 Olympics, Plushenko only lost a competition twice. The first time was to Emanuel Sandhu at the 2003-2004 Grand Prix Final. The second was to Brian Joubert at the 2004 European Championships. Plushenko came close to losing the 2003 World Championships to American Timothy Goebel, but won.

Plushenko withdrew from the 2005 World Championships with injury. But he won the 2006 Olympics with a very big lead over everyone else there.

Plushenko took the 2006-2007 season away from skating. He was married and had a child, but he is now getting a divorce. He is trying to come back to competitive skating, but still has a lot of injuries.

Plushenko is known for his consistency and his strong jumping ability. He has done a lot of quadruple jumps in competition and in combination with other jumps. He was the first to do a lot of quadruple-jump combinations. He has also done the Biellmann spin in competition, although he has not done that recently.

Other websites

Official website Archived 2011-02-01 at the Wayback Machine
(in Russian) Official website
International Skating Union biography Archived 2005-04-05 at the Wayback Machine