Evgeni Plushenko is the skater of the records, an extraordinary artist and an inimitable athlete, able to interpret with equal conviction the more various roles. He is the winner of the gold medal at the winter Olympic Games of Turin 2006.

Nevertheless, what impress more, in looking trough the vicissitudes that have led him to so many affirmations along his career, is the tenacity and the determination that have accompanied him in every single conquest. Both qualities that have allowed him not only to win all the more prestigious titles in figure ice skating, but, above all, to go over incredible difficulties, never surrending, with the rare ability to transform the uneasiness in desire of success, the defeat in improvement of his own limits as human and sportsman.

Evgeni is born on the 3rd of November 1982, in Solenchny, a small village in eastern Russia, built up at the margins of the Baikal-Amur railway line, from the same people who worked there. It is a reality of hard work and dignified poverty, the one in which the young Evgeni grows. The rigid climate gives him remarkable health problems, so that his parents finally decide to move the family to Volvograd, in order to allow the son to grow healthier and stronger.
The encounter with what will become his world, ice skating, happens by chance. As Evgeni himself has often emphasized, nobody in his family never practiced any sport at professional level: his skates, in fact, arrive as a gift from a neighbour, whose daughter did not want to skate anymore. Evgeni has only four years, the doctors have suggested his parents to let him practicing a sport activity, in order to reinforce his physique. Therefore, at the beginning, ice skating represents for him an optimal way to stay in health. But very soon his genius and his extraordinary predisposition let him excel in the small group of children with which he trains: his teachers immediately see in him superior abilities, those ones that will make him a great champion.

When Evgeni is only eleven year old, the ice rink of Volvograd is being closed. This represents a real shift in the life of the young athlete. His trainer, Mikhail Makoveyev, addresses him to Saint Petersburg, in order to let him enter in the school of the great trainer Alexei Mishin. Nothing stops the passion of the young Evgeni, neither the poverty, neither the solitude in which he is forced. His mother, in fact, has to return to Volvograd as she cannot  find a job good enough to maintain herself and the son at the same time.
She tries to convince Evgeni to leave with her, fearing to leave him alone in that big city, but the determination of Zhenya and his love for ice skating are bigger than the fear and the need of affection, which are indeed present in him. Thus, he remains in Saint Petersburg, living in an apartment in common with other persons, and learning soon how to attend to himself, also in the daily necessities.

The encounter with Mishin is fundamental for the artistic and human growth of Evgeni. Mishin represents the strict and capable teacher, the one who pushes him to give his best, the technician who has trained great champions and who helps him to surpass his own abilities, but he represents also the friend who supports him, his mentor. Thanks to Mishin, Evgeni can be rejoined with the mother, because Alexei, once known their economic difficulties, finds for them a good apartment and also supports them economically.
Speaking about the first encounter with the young skater, Mishin loves to use a metaphor and describes Evgeni like a "crude diamond", a stone of enormous value that only need of being modelled, in order to let emerge all its splendour. The hardness of the trainings, which is often described by Plushenko, the difficulties of a child who must face such an important challenge all by himself, the solitude, the problems in the introduction with the group of Mishin, in which everybody is older than him: all these factors pass in the background in front of Evgeni’s dream. It is the dream of a child who, once watching with the mother an Olympic competition on TV, has said "one day I will be an Olympic champion".

The professional career of Evgeni Plushenko is full of reached objectives and extraordinary victories, but also of difficult moments and defeats: from the latter, above all, it is possible to evince the greatness of this champion. The international debut arrives in 1998, at the European Championship in Milan: Evgeni gains the silver medal with a free program of extraordinary difficulty, particularly incredible for an athlete only 15 year old, with eight triples and one quadruple in combination with a triple. A confirmation for the people who previewed the future of this young talent. And Evgeni does not disappoint the expectations when, the same year, he gains the bronze medal at the World Championships in Minneapolis, USA. The retire of Kulik, the former Olympic Champion, unexpectedly opens the road to Plushenko: Evgeni gains the second place after the short program and succeeds in obtaining the bronze medal in spite of a free program with various errors. In this occasion, Evgeni develops that "philosophy of the competition" which will become a point of strength in the career of this extraordinary athlete. The errors committed in the FP, caused by the excessive certainty of winning, as Evgeni himself reminded, makes him understand the absolute necessity of not thinking about the medals or the result to obtain, but of concentrating on every single performance as a single event.

The uniqueness of Evgeni is not only in his unchallenged abilities as an athlete and an artist, but in the tenacity and determination that he demonstrates in every occasion. Like in 2000, when he has to deal with the first, big, delusion of his career. After the victory in the Grand Prix final and his first European title, Evgeni fails in gaining his first World title. The hard lesson is very useful for him, and 2001 will be the year of the triumph and of the definitive international consecration, always in competition with his biggest rival: Alexei Yagudin.

Evgeni starts the 2000/2001 season with a short program of great intensity, perfect for his artistic personality, built on a music that represents the idea of energy itself: the Bolero by Maurice Ravel; the long program, "Once upon a Time in America", is a collage of music, from Morricone with "there was once in America", to Mortal Kombat. Evgeni expresses himself to his maximum technical levels and appears more mature from the artistic point of view. His triumphal march begins with the victory at the Sparkassen Cup, which take place in the first days of November in Germany, and continues with an incredible series of affirmations: Cup of Russia, NHK Trophy, the Russian National Championships, Japan Open, the European Championships in Bratislava, the Final of the Grand Prix in Tokyo and, finally, the World Championships in Vancouver.
Everything seems leading to the conquest of the Olympic gold medal in Salt Lake City, USA, host town for the 2002 Olympic Games. His direct and bigger rival, Yagudin, seems now really beatable.

But the Olympic season is not easy at all for Plushenko. First of all, for a series of accidents that impede him to express himself at the maximum of his abilities, and then also for a long program that turns out to be not really appreciated by the public and the judges, to the point that Evgeni and his staff are forced to change it at the very last time (“Story of an artist”, replaced with “Carmen”).
Nevertheless, Plushenko goes to Salt Lake City with all the possibilities to win. The short program, a selection of music from Michael Jackson, is fast, dragging, technically of highest value, with breathtaking sequences of steps. And with the FP, Carmen (by Bizet and Cedrin), Evgeni can express all the passion of his character with an interpretation full of pathos that enchants the public.
Unfortunately, the Olympic dream breaks up in the opening combination: one fall on the quadruple toeloop definitively jeopardises the possibility to gain the gold medal, also because Alexei Yagudin is in great shape, really motivated, and expresses himself at the maximum level.

With the fair play and the respect for the adversary that always distinguish Evgeni’s behaviour during competitions, he says that Yagudin has deserved the victory, having pursued it with greater determination than himself.

The Olympic silver medal, a prestige for whichever athlete, seems nearly a defeat in that moment. But the appointment with the gold is only delayed.

The 2002/2003 season carries an extraordinary record: Evgeni performs for the first time, during the Cup of Russia, his historical combination 4 toe-3 toe-3 toe. He repeats himself, with one unforgettable exhibition, during the Final of the Grand Prix 2003: the program is “S. Petersburg 300”, an homage to the city that Evgeni considers his own hometown. The competition takes place just in Saint Petersburg and Evgeni realises a perfect performance, opened with the historical combination of jumps and closed with a standing ovation. The judges gives him the highest score: all 6.0 for the artistic presentation.

Evgeni is an innovator, an athlete who always desires to give new stimuli of renewal to his sport. With two programs of great intensity and beauty, Saint Petersburg 300, and a magnificent “Adage” by Albinoni, Evgeni becomes again European and World champion.

He seems not to have other adversaries but himself, and, as he loves to repeat in various occasions, in every contest he competes with himself before all. Every time he touches the ice he pretends to give his best, in a search for perfection that seems to be linked with his natural way of being an athlete and an artist.

The one that follows is without doubt one of the more beautiful, and at the same time more difficult and controversial, seasons for his professional career. The two 2003/2004 programs are still considered among the best ones in the history of figure ice skating. First of all, the short program, "Tango-flamenco" by Paco de Lucia, where Evgeni shows us one of his multiple faces: a Latin soul in a young Russian man with the reputation of being cold and controlled.
The long program is a masterpiece under every single aspect: musical, artistic, athletic. In this occasion Evgeni starts the collaboration, which is still strong nowadays, with the Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton. With him, Evgeni feels to have found somebody who can understand his needs and can interpret the strength of his skating. Edvin composes a music that tells the story of the great Russian dancer Vaclav Nijinskij and Evgeni interprets it with one of the most beautiful choreography ever proposed. In fact, Plushenko particularly loves this music and he really “lives” it on the ice. Everything in him is expression: the face, the eyes, his hands, every single movement is expressive. Nothing is left to chance, every element is studied to communicate emotions.
In an interview, Edvin Marton says he was deeply impressed after seeing Plushenko skating and he immediately thought they could realise something great together.
This one is an important year, artistically and personally, but also a difficult one. The season starts with some physical problems.
At the Grand Prix final he arrives second after Emmanuel Sandhu, penalized by the judges for having realized three combinations of jumps instead of the two expected: a strange error for an athlete like Evgeni, always concentrated during competitions. And the difficulties continue. During the European Championships in Warsaw, after a splendid opening of the free program with a 4/3/3 combination, Evgeni fails the triple axel in an absolutely inexplicable way: interviewed after the contest, he is not either able to find a reason for the error.
The title of European champion passes in the hands of Brian Joubert. Evgeni reacts to the defeat with the strength that enlightens all his career. “This is the sport”, he says, along with the compliments for his adversary.

As his mother had taught him, when he was little: he goes ahead and watches for the next goal.

The next occasion arrives soon, with the European Championships in Dortmund: the joy of Evgeni, expressed with unusual enthusiasm in the kiss & cry, says a lot of his desire to win and of the tenacity with which he has fought for the title!

The Olympic season is near, and the dream of Evgeni is to reach the gold that he missed in Salt Lake City. He says it in every occasion: his goal is to become Olympic champion.
He wins the 2004/2005 Grand Prix Final. Even if he participated only in one of the competitions of the circuit, he was able to obtain the necessary points. During the press conference, a journalist asks him what he answers to those who define him "a genius of ice skating". Evgeni, once again, demonstrates his humility, by answering: “I am not a genius, I am only a skater, one who likes to work. I have the fortune to have a great trainer, wonderful friends and parents, who help me in everything I do. I owe to them all the medals I gained. No, I am not a genius”.
Nevertheless, the public feels the force and the oneness of this great artist, who knows how to amuse and move the souls, who inspires the more different feelings and emotions, who never leaves people indifferent.
At the European Championships in Turin he brings a shocking long program, leaving all the audience breathless with two steps sequences of incredible speed and beauty. And he is again on the top of Europe.
The program is “Godfather”, the one that he chooses as his Olympic free program.
Unfortunately, some physical troubles reoccur in this period, with problems to abductors and two inguinal hernias that are diagnosed to him really late. Evgeni arrives at the World Championships not in great shape. In spite of the love for his country, which pushes him to participate in the competition that is hosted in Moscow, he is finally forced to surrender to the evidence. Full of sorrow, he decides to retire.
He undergoes a surgery operation in Germany, that fortunately resolves every problem.

And we arrive to the present, to the last agonistic season of Evgeni, the Olympic one. Victorious at the European Championships in Lyone, Plushenko arrives in Turin as the great favourite.
In last the four years he has been the absolute dominator of the world ranking, continuously improving his Personal Best, passing with success through every physical difficulty.
When he enters in the ice rink for his short program, the tension and at the same time the absolute determination to reach his goal, are written in his face.

The public inside the Palavela assists to one of the most intense, emotional and technically elevated performances in figure ice artistic skating of all the times.

Evgeni, wearing a completely black custom, takes position at the centre of the rink, the face looking down. When the first notes of the "Tosca" by Puccini spread in the cold air and his look slowly raises towards the sky, as in search for the stars, all the spectators seem to withhold their breath. The first combination, 4 toe-3 toe, is a demonstration of strength and power, but all the magic of the perfection arrives with the triple axel ,which will remain in the history, for the spin that seems suspended in the air, for the perfectly slipped arrival, for the arms opened in a wonderful symmetry. And the poetry of the circular sequence of steps wraps and bewitches the public and the judges. The program develops in a growing pathos, with Evgeni accompanying every single musical vibration, and concluding in a pose which is an affirmation of his force: the Olympic medal is already in his hands.

The score he gains crushes every record in this Olympiad and annihilates his adversaries, who keep making a lot of errors and falling, defeated by a sort of  fear that Evgeni inspires to them.

The “Godfather” is then just a formality to accomplish before raising the arms to the sky, with the gold medal tightened in the hands. The dream has become true: Evgeni Plushenko is the new Olympic champion.

After the Olympic victory, Evgeni passes a full year far from the competitions, hosting the television program "Stars on ice" for the Russian Channel 1, participating in multiple initiatives and, above all, performing in shows in every part of the world, applauded and demanded everywhere.
He also realises, with the collaboration of Edvin Marton, a personal show, "Golden ice Stradivari", which he brings all over the world with a great success.

But the need of confronting himself with the adversaries, the adrenalin that only the competition can offer, combined with the knowledge of the evident difficulties for the Russian ice skating in the last year, push Evgeni to return to amateur sport. After having reflected for long time about this possibility, Plushenko decides to accept this new challenge, announcing his return in the to the next, 2007/2008 agonistic season. After a recent successful surgery operation to the meniscus, Evgeni has resumed the trainings and counts to return soon on the international scene of agonistic figure ice skating.

All his fans attend his first appearance to support him in this new, wonderful adventure....

Lorella Miotello

(translated by Laura De Marco)