Evan Lysacek of the United States reacts after he competes in the men's figure skating free skating on day 7 of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at the Pacific Coliseum on February 18, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
A year after the 2010 Winter Olympics, men's figure skating champion Evan Lysacek of the United States was chosen sportsman of the year by the United States Olympic Committee.
Since the Olympic gold medal was dangled from his neck, Lysacek has become a clothing designer, a star dancer, a charitable maven, and a member of Business Week's top 100 Power List of 2010, denoting that he's an athlete that's attractive to sponsors.
Russian star, Evgeni Plushenko, the silver medalist, just 1.31 points away from gold, has taken a far different path.
Banned from further International Skating Union events, chastised in the media for his unsportsmanlike behaviour after losing the gold at the Vancouver Games, awarded a platinum medal by the Russia television media, and scolded for missing too many days of Russian parliament, where he sat as a member of a political party, Plushenko has seen better days.
His banishment from ISU events means he can not compete at the 2014 Olympics in his home country, as he declared he would after losing gold in Vancouver.
Blame the quad jump, perhaps, for their difference in fortunes. The Vancouver Olympics event became known, by some, as the Great Quad Kerfluffle.
Plushenko opined that skating was going backward if the sport displayed an Olympic champion without a quad. "If the Olympic champion doesn't know how to jump a quad - I don't know," Plushenko said. "Now it's not figure skating. It's dancing."
Lysacek had ditched the quad after the U.S. championships because of a nagging foot injury while Plushenko was one of just two skaters to successfully land one in Vancouver.
"Nobody likes to lose," Lysacek replied. "Plushenko is a great guy, a great skater. I've admired him for years. I thought he did an outstanding job. For him to discredit the field, that's not right. … I guess I was a little disappointed that someone who is my role model would take a hit at me in what is probably one of the most special moments in my life."
Lysacek skipped the following world championships, and so did Plushenko, but the Russian attained a medical certificate, saying he started experiencing pain while practising quads. Through his agent, Plushenko said he did not want to compete without that magic quad. Doctors advised him to rest for two weeks.
However, Plushenko found himself in deep water when he skated in two exhibitions the week after he withdrew from the world championships. According to ISU rules, Plushenko needed permission from his own federation to skate in them and he had not asked.
The ISU banned him indefinitely, but he had 21 days to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Plushenko did not. The ISU confirmed the ban.
In late January of 2011, Plushenko started the process for reinstatement, sending a letter to his federation. He sent a message to his fans: "No need to worry. Everything will be okay."
He's still practising.
Meanwhile, Lysacek expanded his horizons by immediately enrolling in the television show Dancing with the Stars. He danced with Russian-born Anna Trebunskaya and they finished second.
Plushenko, on the other hand, appeared at the wedding celebration of Olympic pairs champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China in September of 2010 by performing an old exhibition routine to Tom Jones's Sex Bomb, in which he strips down to his jockey shorts. He introduced the routine, in which he wears fake muscles, at the 2001 world championships in Vancouver.
Lysacek is still considering whether he wants to come back to skating. Asked if he wanted to continue to the Sochi Games, as Plushenko does, Lysacek said: "I don't think they would love to see me there, to be quite honest. But if I could somehow get a visa into that country, maybe."