Plushenko won a short program

Russian skater Evgeny Plushenko won a short program at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. He received 90.85 points for his performance, this is his personal record at the Olympiads. The second place was taken by the American Evan Lyshec, lagging behind Plushenko by 0.55 points. The third position is occupied by the Japanese Daisuke Takahashi, who scored 90.25 points.

On the eve of the Russian sports couples, participating in the Olympic tournament of skaters, were left without medals. Such a failure befell the national team for the first time since 1964, when Olympic gold in the competitions of sports couples always won the Soviet and then Russian skaters first.

The champions of the Vancouver Olympiad were the skaters from China Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao. According to the results of a short and arbitrary program, the Chinese couple scored 216.57 points. Silver went to the compatriots of the winners - pair of Qing pan and Jiang Tone. They showed the result of 213.31 points. The third place was taken by German athletes Alena Savchenko and Robin Sholkov (210.60).

The best result among Russians who participated in sports couples were shown by the duet Yuko Kawaguti and Alexander Smirnov. Kavaguti and Smirnov took only fourth place (194.77 points). During the execution of an arbitrary program, the skaters made several mistakes, which did not deprive them of a chance for a medal.