They do not read ISU communication? ISU alow Plushy to compete just on Euros!
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/m ... le2304924/?
Plushenko vs. Chan: Get ready for a skating showdown
Beverley Smith - Globe and Mail, Published Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012
Evgeny Plushenko’s special requests continue to multiply.
The 29-year-old Russian, the 2006 Olympic champion, had to ask the International Skating Union a favour: to allow him to compete at the European and world championships this year, because over the past two seasons, he hadn’t achieved the minimum score required in an international skating event.
And now that the ISU has granted Plushenko his request, a clash between the skating icon and Patrick Chan, figure skating’s newest star, is certain.
The pair hasn’t met since the Vancouver Olympics, when Plushenko won the silver medal and Chan was fifth. But since, Chan has blasted away all of Plushenko’s scoring records and a match-up between the two will sell tickets and boost TV viewership like crazy. They would meet at the world championships in Nice, France at the end of March.
Bring him on, Chan says. Last week, Chan said that he was “really excited” to face Plushenko again. “I’ve always looked up to him since I’ve been skating,” Chan said. “I used to watch him at the Grand Prix and world championships, and he was exciting to watch. To be on the same ice again since the Vancouver Olympics would be very exciting.
“I would like to compete against him and see what judges would have to say and what they think between the two of us.”
After Plushenko won his ninth national title last month, coach Alexei Mishin was coy about how they were going to surmount the problem of the minimum score. But the solution was no real secret. He had to petition the ISU. The ISU “exceptionally agreed.” And the decision was a no-brainer. Plushenko brings an excitement to any event he enters.
Plushenko hasn’t been able to land that minimum score internationally because the ISU banned him from competition in June of 2010 after he skated in some shows without permission – shortly after he had withdrawn from the 2010 world championships because of injury.
The ISU bowed to his special request for reinstatement in July of 2011, but Plushenko was unable to take part in international competitions this year because of injury.
This week at the Canadian championships in Moncton, N.B., Chan will show what he is capable of doing: two quads in a long program, high presentation scores. He said his performance at the Canadian championships in Victoria, B.C. was better than his effort at the world championships when he demolished all three of the scoring records.
Plushenko admits he’s still a work in progress. He said he does not fear defeat this year. His ultimate goal is the Sochi Olympics, where the results could be quite different from Vancouver.
He admits that it was very difficult for him to finally re-emerge at the Russian nationals, having to skate last, enduring that wait, pondering the nightmare of doubling all of his jumps. (He landed one quad, two triple Axels and only doubled his triple Lutz after running out of steam at the end).
His technical mark was only third best among the Russians. But his final score of 259.67 points – if it had come in an international event – would have been enough for him to have competed at least at the Grand Prix events.
He’s been practicing two quads in a program since before the Russian nationals. “For me, the most important thing was to avoid becoming a laughing stock,” Plushenko told Russian reporters. He is human, after all.
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Instead, the skater plans to focus on adding a quad flip or Lutz to his arsenal after the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, France, in March, citing those jumps' higher point values.
"If I'm going to spend the time on it, I think I should push the bar," he said.
"Lots of skaters do quad toes; [by the 2014 Sochi Olympics] the next level will be who is going to do the harder quads."
Chan welcomes the chance to compete in Nice against Evgeni Plushenko, Russia's three-time Olympic medalist (a gold and two silvers) who recently gained a special exemption to compete at the 2012 European Figure Skating Championships this month.
"I'm going to be excited," he said. "Evgeni is someone I've looked up to since I was young. [Plushenko is eight years Chan's senior.]
"To be on the same ice with him [for the first time] since the Vancouver Olympics would be very exciting. [Being that] I'm a new, rejuvenated kind of skater since the Olympics, it will be interesting to see what the judges will do."