A personal best in mom’s memory

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/02/2010 (5737 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — Just days after the

death of her mother, Canadian

figure skater Joannie Rochette

put on a show at the Olympics.

The 24-year-old from Ile-Dupas, Que.,

scored a personal best with 71.36 points

for her sultry tango in the women’s

short program. She collapsed in tears

the moment she finished.

The skate was good enough to leave

Rochette sitting in third place.

The six-time Canadian champion

fought back tears when her name was

announced in the warmup to huge applause,

and again when she glided onto

the ice.

She broke down the moment her emotional

program ended, and then collapsed

into the arms of her longtime

coach Manon Perron.

Her mother Therese died of a massive

heart attack soon after arriving in

Vancouver. She was 55.

Earlier, reigning world champion

Kim Yu-Na of South Korea scored a

world-record 78.50 points for her short

program to a James Bond medley.

Platinum Plushenko?

VANCOUVER — Evgeni Plushenko

isn’t awarding himself a new Olympic

medal. Or creating one, for that matter.

Reports Tuesday said a picture of the

Olympic silver medallist’s latest prize

was labelled "platinum of Vancouver"

on Plushenko’s official website. But

agent Ari Zakarian said no one had

authority to do this "stupid thing," and

Plushenko himself was not aware of

it. His medal from the Salt Lake City

Games was properly identified as silver.

There were no labels beneath the

pictures of Plushenko’s three Olympic

medals later on Tuesday. The Russian

also has a gold from the Turin Olympics.

"It’s absolutely a mistake. Evgeni has

absolutely no idea about this. Absolutely

no idea," Zakarian said. "Nobody from

our team is awarding a platinum medal."

Plushenko, coach Alexei Mishin and

even a few Russian politicians were

furious with the results of the men’s

competition. Plushenko, the heavy

favourite, finished second to Evan

Lysacek of the United States despite

being the only top contender to land a

clean quadruple jump.

"Quad is quad. If the Olympic champion

doesn’t know how to jump the

quad, I don’t know," Plushenko said

afterward. "Now it’s not men’s figure

skating, it’s dancing. That’s my point."

But the overall quality of Lysacek’s

program was better, and the reigning

world champion got bonus points for

doing five of his eight jumping passes

in the second half of the program.

The whining has hurt Plushenko’s

reputation, with critics saying it’s in

poor taste and the three-time world

champion should be letting Lysacek

enjoy his moment.

Plushenko just wants to move on, Zakarian

said, and incidents like Tuesday

don’t help.

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"Of course he’s sad. He wanted to do

his best," Zakarian said. "But it’s past,

it’s done and he’s looking forward to the

next competition. This is history. It’s

over."