When Plushenko Comes To Shove, Can Lysacek Shove Back?

It gives a whole new meaning to the term "Cold War."

After a brilliant short program that left him in a familiar position atop the men's figure skating standings, Yevgeny Plushenko tried a new move, the triple loop trash-talk. And as he had done all evening long, the brash Russian effortlessly stuck the landing.

Standing amidst a gaggle of reporters, the 27-year-old, who was the only skater to land a quad jump that evening, took a swipe at the competition, laughing at the notion that this had become a three-man race between himself, American Evan Lysacek, and Japan's Daisku Takahashi. After he had taken in the other short programs, Plushenko's reaction can be best summed up as: If you can't do the jumps, then the ladies' program starts next Tuesday.

"Without a quad," Plushenko declared, "it's not men's figure skating." It's a far cry from Khruschev banging his shoe on a podium at the UN. In fact, it barely registers on the Ivan Drago-Rocky IV scale of pre-fight baiting, but in a discipline known more for it's sequined, form-fitting costumes, consider the feathered gauntlet thrown. Instead of "I must break you", we get "I must out-jump you."

"I believe the future of figure skating lies in the quad jumps," Plushenko said, doing little to hide an air of disdain, "We can discuss a lot whether it is good or not, or whether it is good to focus on other things, but by doing so, we are going back in time."

The obvious object of the Russian's derision, the 24-year-old Lysacek, produced one of the finest performances of his World Championship-caliber career, scoring a 90.30 though he never attempted the difficult four revolution spin in question. Plushenko, a three-time World Champion, who came out of retirement after three years to challenge a field that he deemed "soft", scored a 90.85.

Going into Thursdays final (which will air on NBC, coverage starting at 8 p.m.), it remains to be seen whether the emotional Lysacek, who is know more for his preparation, and less for his leaps, will enter into the mind-game minefield that Plushenko has attempted to lay out. The American skater is coming off one of the best years of his career, and his short program has him poised to be the first American men's figure skating champ since Brian Boitano took gold in Calgary twenty-two years ago. But, Lysacek seems to have come into his own during Plushenko's short retirement, and the Russian's quick return to dominance seems to have shaken the otherwise steady knees of the rest of the figure skating field.

Only on Thursday, when the skate-guards come off, will it be determined whether or not Plushenko's calculated bluster had it's desired effect, or whether it simply added fuel to the Olympic fire that burns inside Lysacek. Here's hoping that history, and bad Rocky sequels, have taught us something about Russo-American trash talking.

Read Tonic's interview with Evan Lysacek.

Read more of Tonic's ongoing Winter Olympics coverage.

Photos courtesy of NBC.