Evgeni Plushenko
Olympic Silver Medalist, Three-time World Champion

Evgeni Plushenko has one goal at the beginning of each season. Winning gold medals.

"Since I started competing at seven years old I don’t accept any place other than the first. This is my main goal every season. This is what I am and work for. When you come out on the ice there is only one thing to be focused on – your program that you prepared and you should do your best," Plushenko said.

Evgeni Plushenko

The World Champion has become one of the dominant male skaters in the sport. Plushenko won the Silver medal at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and the Gold Medal at the 2003 World Championships in Washington, D.C.

Among his accomplishments:

* Three-time World Champion
* Four-time European Champion
* Olympic Games Silver Medalist 2002
* Six time Russian National Champion
* Since 1996 he has won 47 Gold Medals
* Since 1998 he has received a perfect mark of 6.0
70 times
* He made figure skating history with a 4-3-3 jump combination
* He has the world record in men's figure skating with 251.75 points
* He is the only senior male figure skater who can do
the Biellmann Spin

Plushenko usually doesn’t waste any time in his programs to exhibit his technical superiority. He will challenge his competitors with his signature combination – an incredibly difficult quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop-double loop.

"I adore jumping," Plushenko said. "I do the rest as it is supposed to be done."

Plushenko’s mother sent him to the ice rink when he was only four years old. When Plushenko was 11 his ice rink in Volgograd closed and he moved alone to train at St. Petersburg. Shortly after his mother joined him.

While Plushenko was in St. Petersburg he would take lessons from the choreographer of the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet. Plushenko faced a landmark decision when the choreographer offered Plushenko to dance instead of skating. "I was puzzled and told her to ask my mom," Plushenko said. "My mom said that I have to choose. I made my choice."

His trademark is a Biellmann spin. He learned the Biellmann spin soon after he started to skate when he saw a girl doing it.

One of Plushenko’s superstitions is his parents never watching him compete live, even if the competitions are near their homeland. "This has been a tradition since I was a kid, and we don’t want to change it now," Plushenko said.

When Plushenko skates, he is focused but relaxed enough to want to entertain the audience. "I concentrate on each element, especially in competition," he said. "But I try to see audience because they relax me and make me happy when they are smiling and clapping."

Plushenko’s versatility was never more apparent when he skated to a Michael Jackson medley in his short program and performed his long program to music from Cirque du Soleil and Carmen. Then he skated his exhibition to "Sex Bomb."

Did you know?
Evgeni Plushenko wears a red thread around his wrist. "It is for good luck from my friend Miguel in Spain," Plushenko said. "Five years ago we were in a car accident and it was bad, but we didn’t get hurt and after this accident (Miguel) gave this to me."

Personal

Name	Evgeni Plushenko
Born	Solnechni (Khabarovsk region in Russia)
Home town	St. Petersburg, Russia
Training town	St. Petersburg, Russia
Home club	Ybileiny Sport Club
Coach	Alexei Mishin
Choreographers	Edward Smirnov, David Audish
Music: Short program	Adagio by T. Albinoni
Music: Free skate	St. Petersburg 300 by Igor Korniliuk