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Skater Weir Reaches a Turning Point
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For a sense of the impact a quad can have, consider that Weir's triple-triple combination had a base value of 10 points. Lambiel's quadruple-triple was worth 13. But that's just the starting point. Judges can increase or decrease the score by three points depending on the quality of the execution, and a fall warrants an additional minus-1 off of the total score. In the short program, Weir got 11 points for his nicely executed triple-triple. Lambiel's quad-triple was not so pretty; so instead of a possible 13, he earned 12.43.
The bottom line: A fall on a quad usually nets fewer points than a decent triple, but even a shaky quad can provide a big point boost.
Lambiel, the reigning world champion, and Joubert, a former European champion, plan to bring out their quads Thursday. Both are planning to attempt two.
"I'm going to fight," Lambiel said Tuesday night. "I did one double axel and it was a big mistake. I'll check what's wrong and in the free I will have to be perfect in every jump, in every spin."
Lambiel, recovering from a strained knee, was not perfect in practice Wednesday. He fell hard attempting a quad jump while beginning a run-through of his free skate. None of the top men skated his entire program.
Weir pulled this long program out of the back of his closet for this Olympics. Dissatisfied with his free skate at the mid-January U.S. championships, he ditched it in favor of a favorite program from last year. However, he and Hill have upgraded it substantially to better accommodate the new judging system, and Weir has not used it in competition since last March.
"I'm not really nervous yet, but I think by tonight I'll be a little jittery, a little nervous about competing," Weir said. "I just want to have a good time out there. I had no real expectations coming in, and now, sitting in second, that's incredible, but I'm not expecting anything to happen in the free that I can't control."
Men's Long Program Top 10 Skaters (Scores from short program) 1. Evgeni Plushenko, Russia (90.66) 2. Johnny Weir, U.S. (80.00) 3. Stephane Lambiel, Switzerland (79.04) 4. Brian Joubert, France (77.77) 5. Daisuke Takahashi, Japan (73.77) 6. Jeffrey Buttle, Canada (73.29) 7. Emanuel Sandhu, Canada (69.75) 8. Matthew Savoie, U.S. (69.15) 9. Gehoerghie Chiper, Romania (67.66) 10. Evan Lysacek, U.S. (67.55) Skate order (Final group) Plushenko Lambiel Weir Buttle Joubert Takahashi On TV NBC, 8 p.m.- midnight
