Lambiel battles injury to capture men’s free skate
CALGARY, Alberta – Stephane Lambiel’s silver medal at the Turin Olympics looked as if it would be his biggest prize of the year.
His right knee aching, the Swiss star was considering not defending his title at the World Figure Skating Championships. Man, is he happy he changed his mind.
“I am going to enjoy this world championship,” said Lambiel, who said the knee will need a lengthy rest. “I didn’t make the decision to come here until 10 days ago, so this means a lot to me. I am very proud that I came here and that I competed.”
He needed every element and every second of his free skate to hold off France’s Brian Joubert.
Lambiel capped a magnificent program Thursday night with a quadruple toe loop and four triples in the second half of his routine to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” He finished it off with a sizzling spin that could have melted the ice, and the Saddledome fans were on their feet long before he stopped turning.
The final skater of the evening, Lambiel lingered on the ice raising his arms, pumping his fists, and throwing kisses to fans ringing cowbells and waving Swiss flags.
“I had to push myself harder and harder, and that’s why I did the job,” Lambiel said. “I just thought about my skating and not about the other skaters.”
He was wise not to think about Joubert, whom he barely edged in the free skate. Lambiel had a 3.39 point edge overall.
American Evan Lysacek, who won bronze a year ago, came back from a hard fall in warmups to excite the crowd with a performance to rival his strong free skate in the Olympics. That long program lifted Lysacek to fourth in Turin. This one got him another bronze.
Joubert looked like he might become the first men’s winner from France in 41 years. He was bitterly disappointed with his sixth-place finish at Turin, scrapped his long program and brought back “The Matrix.” It didn’t work that well in qualifying, when he was third in his group, but after Joubert won the short program with a James Bond routine, he blew away everyone but Lambiel in the free skate.
Three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir barely made it off the ice holding his back and grimacing after crashing on a triple flip. He wound up seventh – he was fifth at the Olympics.
“For today, it was just hell getting on the ice,” Weir admitted.
Earlier, the original dance that catapulted Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto to the Olympic medals podium might have cost them a world championship. Their normally sultry salsa turned flat and they finished fourth in their strongest event. That dropped the Olympic silver medalists one spot overall to fourth behind couples from Bulgaria, Canada and France.
The three-time U.S. champions weren’t quite sure why their marks were low compared to Turin, where they rhumbaed their way to second in the original dance, and held that spot through the free dance.
“We felt a better connection with this program than in the Olympics,” Belbin said. “Our technical marks were high and we had all the levels we wanted.”