Following a thrilling short program that saw two brilliant performances, men's singles figure skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia will head into the medal round, with performances in the free skate set to take place on Friday, February 14. Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu was listed as one of the favorites to finish strong in the singles events and after posting a magnificent score of 101.45 to break his own world record, the 19-year-old is now in the driver's seat for the Gold Medal. While Hanyu put on a show of his own at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, Canadian star Patrick Chan was strong as well, scoring a 97.52 to post himself second behind only Hanyu heading into the free.
Spain's Javier Fernandez will walk into the medal competition in third after receiving an 86.98 score while Japan's Daisuke Takahashi and German Peter Liebers round of the top five after the short program with scores of 86.40 and 86.04 respectively. Competition favorite and hometown hero Evgeni Plushenko – who previously helped Russia earn a Gold Medal in the team competition – was forced to bow out of the singles event due to nagging back injuries and his exit paved the way for some of the brightest stars in the sport to thrive on the world's biggest stage.
“I’m ecstatic with the 97 at the Olympic Games,” Patrick Chan said after his score. “I’ve done it before at the World Championships three times. Now I can finally saying I’ve done it at the Olympics. That’s a big accomplishment for me after the team event, a bit of a shaky event. I was so happy with the quad-toe-triple-toe. Going into the first 10 seconds, it kind of hit me — I’m at the Olympic Games Tomorrow’s real proof, who’s really trained and who’s really comfortable with their program. It’s kind of like going all-in on the blackjack table.”
Jason Brown of the United States remains in medal contention after posting an even 86.00 while Brian Joubert of France (85.84), Chinese star Han Yan (85.66), Kazakhstan's Denis Ten (84.06) and Alexander Majorov of Sweden (83.81) will look to move into the Top 3 as well. Friday's free skating program will begin at 10:00am, ET in front of a packed crowd hoping to be wowed by the best the popular sport of figure skating has to offer.
For a complete look at the Men's Short Program results, follow this link.
Men's Singles Free Program: DATE, TIME & VIEWING INFO
DATE: Friday, February 14
TIME: 10:00am, ET
TV COVERAGE: NBC Sports Network
LIVE STREAM: CLICK HERE
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